Bhubaneswar: The city authorities have come up with a plan to install a one-of-its-kind adaptive traffic signalling system under the Smart City Mission.
As part of this system, the traffic lights installed at various junctions run on an automatic platform and regulate the movements of vehicles smoothly across the city.
The authorities have completed the installation of the smart traffic lights at 56 junctions across Bhubaneswar, following the plan.
However, the same is yet to be done on the junctions along the national highway 5, which is confusing the commuters to no end.
The confusion arises primarily because most of the lights are not functioning. The problem is especially felt at five important and critical junctions along the highway - Vani Vihar Square, Acharya Vihar Square, Jayadev Vihar Square, CRPF Square and Fire Station Square.
The lights are only blinking adding to further confusion, citizens claim.
"I have no idea where to watch for the green or red lights. I cross the CRPF Square almost four or five times a day. Once they made the lights operational, the situation became more confusing," said Vimal Hota, who runs a shop near CRPF Square.
The five junctions are the connecting points to the approach roads to the national highway. The parallel flyover of the national highway from Rasulgarh to Baramunda runs over these junctions. Since the lights are installed under the flyover, the people get confused about where to watch for the signals.
"I was coming from the Rental Colony side and got confused by the new traffic lights at Fire Station Square. The light was placed under flyover in such a manner that it is tough to see the lights from even a little far in case of congestion. I didn't know what to make of the blinking lights," said Ratikant Sahoo, who runs a drug store at Rental Colony.
On top of the non-functional lights, there are not adequate number of traffic police personnel. Fire Station Square is guarded by a home guard or a single traffic police. The situation is not very different from other junctions.
Only Vani Vihar is guarded by four traffic personnel.
"I often observe that we were left on our own to judge the traffic flow and get through the junctions safely. The traffic police remain idle most of the time. Sometime they guard one side of the approach road and don't care about the other side," said Anant Mohanty, a commuter.
Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said the traffic lights on the junctions along the highway were in testing mode and once everything was fixed, they would made operational for smooth control of vehicular movement.
"The new lights on each junctions are going through a trial. The same thing is being done for the lights along the highway," said Jena.