At last solution seems to be in sight to repair faulty signals and timers at more than 50 traffic signals in the city. Police sources claim that the process of floating the tenders to repair the faulty signals was delaying the process.
The City Police and Coimbatore Corporation had already initiated floating a tender to attract sponsors to maintain all the traffic signals in the city against the existing practice of giving private parties the option to choose signals. The advertisers were choosy when it came to signals with huge advertisement mileage and a number of signals went without sponsors.
A senior police officer said that the process was initially delayed due to the Mayoral by-poll. It was followed by unrest following conviction of the former Chief Minister in the wealth case. Police claimed that shifting of Corporation Commissioners thrice also contributed to the delay.
G. Latha was the Corporation Commissioner when the city police decided to float tenders to attract deposits and maintain the signals. The police claimed that they were in the final stage of floating the tender, when she was transferred. She was followed by S. Ganesh for a short term, before the present Corporation Commissioner K. Vijayakarthikeyan assumed office last month.
Officials claimed that the tender terms have been finalised and expressed hope that it would be floated before the end of January. If all goes well as per schedule, by March 2015 all signals should be functioning perfectly.
Teams formed under Deputy Commissioners of Police Pravesh Kumar (Law and Order) and R.V. Ramya Bharathi (Crime) had identified places across the city where more CCTV cameras could be installed through sponsorships. Police sources said that installing the cameras would improve surveillance and make crime prevention and detection easier.
