Power cut adds to the chaos in Chennai traffic

CHENNAI: The power cut has hit every section of the population -- including traffic policemen. At least for an hour every day as the signals go blank during the scheduled power cuts, the policemen are forced to manually control the traffic flow in the scorching heat. "In Mylapore, the supply is switched off at 9 am, which is a peak hour and everybody is rushing to office.It becomes a headache when the signal also goes off," said a traffic constable posted at Mandavelli.
During April this year, the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) announced scheduled power cuts in the city. The city has to bear the outages for an hour and the districts for three hours. In the city the power cut is rotated between 8 am and 6 pm. During this time, the transformers are turned off to implement the load shedding and the traffic movement becomes chaotic. The policemen manually manage the vehicle flow.
In Chennai, there are over 300 signals which function with three bulbs each of around 60 watts. The supply to the signals is given from the nearest transformer through underground cables. Over 4,000 traffic policemen are on duty at any given time. Each locality faces the problem at different times according to the load shedding schedule.
Policemen complain that during the rains the signals do not work due to cable problems and in summer due to power cuts. "We have to employ two to three more constables to man a junction. This is taking a heavy toll on the manpower," said a policeman on Anna Salai.
Even the arterial Anna Salai and Beach Road is not spared from the problem. "It appears that the wait is longer due to the heat and the traffic. The signal problem aggravates the situation," said Shivakumar Skandan, a motorist who uses Anna Salai every day.
A TNEB official said that it is not possible to give separate lines to the signals alone. "They should be brought under the essential services list like hospitals. The police department can opt for solar power-run signals," he said.
Additional commissioner of police (traffic) Sanjay Arora said that the TNEB has to decide upon giving a separate connection for the traffic signals. "As of now we manually regulate the vehicle flow," he said.
Chennai traffic police had tried solar-powered signals a few years back. But it was a failure as the lights were dim and were not efficient during the day. "We have to tie up with some academic institution and come out with a solution," said a senior police officer.