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Documented by Goa Desc Resource Centre Ph:2252660
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Solar-powered traffic lights to man Panjim roads soon !
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by Gary Azavedo
'Goodbye, traffic jams! Hello, solar-powered traffic lights,'
will soon be on the lips of Panjim's citizens, if the proposal of
Rs 66 lakh submitted to the Home Department is implemented
in the next two months.
In an informal chat with the Herald, SP (Traffic) A V Deshpande
revealed that a proposal to re-introduce traffic signals in the city
has been submitted by the Goa Traffic Cell through the office of
the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) to the Home Department,
is under active consideration.
"The proposal that was discussed at the State Road Safety Council
meeting chaired by the Chief Secretary in February, this year, has
been agreed in principle and would be implemented as soon as the
requisite funds of Rs 66 lakh are allocated. The proposal for the
solar-powered traffic lights has been surveyed by Bharat Electronics,
a Government of India enterprise and financed by the Ministry of
Defence," SP (Traffic) Deshpande disclosed.
Though traffic lights are not new in the State and have been in operation
since 1991 onwards, the police officials mention that they had not been
implemented properly earlier.
"The traffic lights were placed too close to each other and the
programmable time was not adjusted properly and set at too close a
frequency. This caused the traffic to spill over to the next road crossing
or arm of the junction and block the traffic that was passing through the
inner streets. The bulbs too fused very quickly," the official remarked.
The soon-to-be-introduced solar-powered traffic lights will have numerous
advantages, besides decreasing the traffic congestion witnessed in
the peak hours in the city. It will be a big boost to the enforcement of
traffic violation as with the introduction of these easily programmable
solar-powered traffic lights, the manpower utilised to manage the traffic
will be reduced. "Where earlier the department had two to three
constables to direct the free flow of traffic, one constable could be
appointed to note down the numbers of vehicles violating the rules,"
SP (Traffic) Deshpande stated.
"So also these lights can be easily programmed with the help of a
logic-controlled computer system with a set frequency programme
for every road crossing and for the arms of junctions to cater to seasonal
rushes, or a holiday mode can be programmed for tourism-related
rushes like that seen in the months of December to mid-January.
The lights will also have the manual override facility so that in the
event of any eventuality, they can be shut down and physically
managed by the traffic personnel from the switchboard. The lights
will be programmed for peak hours, non-peak hours, off-peak hours,
night mode (that will be a blinker mode), etc," he informed.
The power saving will be enormous as these solar-powered traffic
lights will function on light emitting diodes (LEDs), solid state
electronic components that last for longer hours and work constantly
even on low voltage conditions.
"They are visible even in strong daylight conditions and do not fuse
easily like normal bulbs. And thus perform much better than normal bulbs.
They do not operate on electricity and instead function on the solar
power that is available in Goa nine months in a year. So they are
not affected by power shutdowns, as the storage batteries attached
to it store the solar power that enable it to run during the nights and
in low-cast conditions. A provision has been made so that should
the battery run out, the solar-powered traffic lights will switch to
street light mode and draw power from it," SP (Traffic) Deshpande
revealed.
The solar-powered traffic lights with the help of their countdown timers
will enable the vehicle riders/drivers to switch off their engines as they
wait for the signals to change, and thus drastically reduce the fuel
consumption and control pollution. The lights will have a counter display
that will count down the number of seconds, the light would take to
change its colour. "This could again be programmed depending upon
the traffic frequency, with the peak hours having a lower time frame,
for example, 10 or 15 seconds as compared to the non-peak hours that
could be programmed, for example, for 45 seconds.
Again it will depend upon the time of the day, whether a weekday or
weekend and the location, as the traffic frequency varies accordingly,"
he mentioned.These countdown timers will control the tendency of a
motor vehicle rider/driver to jump the queue. "As it has been observed
that mostly the impatient two-wheeler riders, who attempt to squeeze
their way through the narrow space between the vehicles to reach the
front of the queue and in the process, creating traffic jams and
bottlenecks that linger long after the lights have changed colours.
This will be reduced under this new system," SP (Traffic) Deshpande
stated.
The Goa Traffic Cell has recommended for the setting up of these
lights at eight junctions, Customs House, the Betim ferry point,
2STC Army headquarters, Kala Academy, St Inez, the Government
printing press, the church square and near the Progress high school.
So also six Amber Blinkers have been proposed at Hotel Mandovi,
the old GMC complex, Bal Bhavan, Magsons Supercentre and the
traffic circle, Miramar (the Dhempe college, Miramar as well as the
Panjim side).
In the next phase, it is proposed to have three Pelican signals installed
at unmanned junctions to aid pedestrians to cross the streets at places
where the traffic just zooms by, for example, near the District and
Sessions Court, Panjim. These Pelican signals can be switched on by
the pedestrian seeking to cross the street but have been programmed in
such a manner as to prevent their misuse by unscrupulous elements.
These solar-powered traffic lights will then be implemented in other cities
of the State like Margao, Vasco and Mapusa (budget permitting) if proven
a success in Panjim, SP (Traffic) Deshpande promised.
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HERALD 18/07/05 page 3
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GOA DESC RESOURCE CENTRE
Documentation + Education + Solidarity
11 Liberty Apts., Feira Alta, Mapusa, Goa 403 507
Tel: 2252660 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
website: www.goadesc.org
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