Signal free corridor to transport organs for transplant

August 7, 2014

The traffic police of Delhi and Gurgaon along with a private hospital Wednesday set up a traffic signal free corridor to give uninterrupted passage to transport organs meant for transplant.

On the occasion of Organ Donation Day Aug 6, Fortis Memorial Research Institute (FMRI) collaborated with the Delhi and Gurgaon traffic police to set up a “Corridor of Life” between the Indira Gandhi International Airport and the institute in Gurgaon.

A test run of the corridor that cut travel time and provided uninterrupted road access was carried out Wednesday.

“We want to replicate the success of our Green Corridor initiative at Fortis Malar Hospital in Chennai, where a heart was transported in 14 minutes covering a distance of 12 km and saving the life of a 21 year-old-girl,” Dilpreet Brar, regional director of FMRI, said at the launch.

Brar: “We recognize the importance of an efficient organ transport programme in saving lives and want to work closely with key stakeholders who can enable this process and make this a reality in Delhi-NCR.”

Source:The Hindu

Police need more teeth to regulate errant e-vehicles

July 31, 2014

Hindustan Times (Delhi)

Soumya Pillai  

E-RICKSHAWS OFTEN DISOBEY RULES, JUMP TRAFFIC SIGNALS AND DRIVE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF ROAD, RISKING THE LIVES OF COMMUTERS

NEW DELHI: The wait for the regularisation process of e-rickshaws has led to another death in the capital.A two-and-a-half-year-old boy was flung from his mother’s lap into a pot of boiling sugar syrup in east Delhi’s Trilokpuri on Tuesday, after an errant e-rickshaw hit the woman carrying the baby.The incident, traffic cops claimed, was not an isolated one.

According to the data maintained by Delhi Traffic Police, till July 15 this year, e-rickshaws had been involved in more than 36 accidents, which have caused two fatalities. The death of Dev — Tuesday’s victim — has pushed the death toll to three with clamour growing louder for the regularisation of the batterypowered vehicles.

Overloading, not following traffic signals and driving in the wrong direction are some of the offences that these battery operated rickshaws are often guilty of, the traf fic cops claimed.

Earlier in June, an announcement for regularising these threewheeler vehicles had come as relief for the traffic police officers who had to manage these unruly vehicles on the roads which seldom followed rules.

But the delay in execution of these regularisation laws by the corporation has only helped making matters worse.

“We have drafted all rules and regulations to be followed by the e-rickshaw drivers once they come under the corporation’s purview. Soon we will be able to control the accidents caused by these rickshaws,” said a senior official from NDMC.

Known for providing last-mile connectivity, these compact vehicles ply on narrow lanes of congested colonies and often create panic among pedestrians.

In Tuesday’s incident Dev’s mother was taking him for a walk to the nearby market when an an e-rickshaw is said to have come out of nowhere and hit the duo.

Traffic officers corroborated that not obeying traffic signals, carrying more passengers than the vehicle’s designated space and not switching on the headlights at night not only endangered the lives of the passengers in the rickshaws but also pedestrians and other drivers on the road.

 

Source-http://paper.hindustantimes.com/

Traffic signals in Delhi to have unique number; hourly updates of its status to be made available

December 2, 2013

 

Somreet Bhattacharya, TNN

(Hourly updates of traffic…)
NEW DELHI: The next time you are stuck at a traffic intersection where the signal takes a long time to turn green, you can call the traffic police and register a complaint. The force is in the process of marking each signal with a unique number which a Delhiite can quote while making a complaint on the traffic helpline or the police control room.

 Officials said the system will be rolled out in stages over the next few months. Signals at major intersections in Delhi are manned by personnel who control the lights depending on the pressure of traffic in the area.

Hourly updates of traffic lights to be made available. The system often creates snarls as officials controlling it have to coordinate with their colleagues at neighbouring signals to synchronize the lights for smooth flow of traffic, particularly during peak hours.

To begin with, crossings at Maurice Nagar in DU’s North Campus and Mayapuri (west Delhi) have been numbered. These identification numbers will help traffic control rooms monitor the change in signaling, whether done manually or automatically.

“We will fine tune it further to pinpoint any fault with the signaling systems so that a traffic snarl that might be caused due to a rapidly changing signal can be rectified ,” said Anil Shukla, additional CP (traffic). Traffic officials added that hourly updates of the traffic lights will be available with control rooms at any point of time.

“Even commuters who are stuck in a snarl at a signal and notice that a traffic light is creating a snarl, can inform our control room using the helpline number or the PCR number mentioning the traffic light calibration digits, and we can take appropriate action to rectify it,” said a senior traffic official.

Traffic authorities said, for the time being, a chart will be maintained at control rooms showing the positions and calibration numbers of the signal poles.

When such complaints are registered with the authorities, they will be able to pinpoint the signal using the chart and inform the local traffic official to rectify it.

“We are trying to document each signal with its timing data base and functionality and there will be no arbitrariness in the controlling . This will help us in monitoring and accountability of our boys on the field also,” said Shukla.

 

Source-http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com

Traffic cops to manually tune signal management system

December 2, 2013

Hindustan Times (Delhi)

Subhendu Ray 

NEW DELHI: Failing to put an automated intelligent traffic system (ITS) in place in the national Capital despite several attempts, the Delhi traffic police are now working to make them smart manually.

With the help of Google Maps they are conducting an in depth study on traffic patterns, road conditions, average vehicular speed, volume of traffic and discharge capacity of intersection arms at tarffic intersections. Accordingly, they will pre-fix the signal cycle timings to five to eight different time brackets of the day. “We have started the process about four months ago and have already re-tuned about 500 signals in east and west Delhi of 1200 total signals and blinkers in the city. This has significantly improved the traffic situation in these areas by reducing waiting time and improving the process of vehicle discharge,” said Anil Shukla, additional commissioner of police (traffic).

Some of the major intersections where the system is already in place include Kirti Nagar, Punjabi Bag, Mayapuri on Ring Road, Ramesh Nagar, East Patel Nagar and Rajouri Garden circle.

The ongoing process of tuning all 1200 signals and blinkers will be completed within a couple of months, he said

 

Source-http://paper.hindustantimes.com

Overlooking local traffic one of the main causes of expressway mess

September 9, 2013

Siddhartha Rai , Hindustan Times  Gurgaon,

 

It is now a known fact that the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway and the associated phenomena — jams, holdups, broken service roads and unending queues at the two toll plazas — have made life difficult for commuters, but the devil, as the saying goes, is in the details.

Absence of pedestrian walkways, near absence of cross-over facilities like foot-overbridges and underpasses, and messy and uncoordinated intersections are some of the design flaws that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), in its defence against catechism from the Parliament and the CAG, said it did not anticipate while planning the expressway.

  “Either the expressway, meant to fly past Delhi and Gurgaon to Jaipur, should not have been used by the local traffic of Gurgaon, or the NHAI should have planned the expressway keeping in mind the needs of Gurgaon traffic as well,” said Rohit Baluja, president of Institute of Road Traffic Education and director of College of Traffic Management, Faridabad.
Baluja says that the Gurgaon traffic has created a muddle for the expressway.

“The Gurgaon authorities did not coordinate with the NHAI. They saw that development along the highway was easy and profitable, and did not develop their internal traffic mechanism, putting the entire pressure on the highway.

“There was lack of planning from the beginning. The volume of traffic was 10 times the figure estimated on the very first day of operations. The authorities, clearly, did not take into account population growth, rise in number of vehicles, the expected rate of industrial growth in new Gurgaon, and migration from Delhi,” said urban planning expert Sarika Panda Bhat.

Bhat also suggests constructing a bypass to avoid the traffic muddle created due to the expressway and the toll plazas.

After Seoul removed the Cheonggyecheon highway, the average price for apartments in the area rose by almost 25% as compared to only 10% in the neighborhoods farther away. Rents for commercial office spaces rose, too. Who knows the case might be the same for Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway.

 

Source-http://www.hindustantimes.com

Residents want barriers and traffic signal on road

September 5, 2013

 

Hindustan Times (Delhi) /Vibha Sharma  MANOJ KUMAR / HT PHOTOS

Narendra Yadav, estate officer, Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), visited Sector 27 recently. The residents raised the matter of installing barriers and a traffic signal on the main road of Sectors 27 and 28 with him at that time.

 

 ((  (There is a demand to install a traffic signal and barriers at this point.)

Considering that the main road of Sectors 27 and 28 and the main road of Sector 43 are one way, vehicles go past at a high speed. It is very difficult for pedestrians to cross these roads. People also find it difficult to take a turn towards their colony or come out of it. The circumstances also increase the chance of accidents. To overcome these problems the RWA members requested Yadav to arrange for the installation of barriers on the road and also a traffic signal.

Says Harish Ahuja, secretary of the Sector 27 RWA, “There was a major accident here last month. Installing barriers is important to avoid accidents.”

Yadav spoke to Arun Dhankar, executive engineer, electric wing, HUDA, for the installation of barriers in the next one week. He asked for two months time for the installation of a traffic signal on this stretch. The residents also demanded installation of signboards in the area. “Ideally, signboards mentioning the sectors on this road and mentioning it as one way road should be installed at the beginning of the road. But the absence of such signboards causes a lot of inconvenience to a person coming here for the first time,” adds Ahuja.

The residents also raised the matter of poor maintenance of the parks in the area. “In a majority of the parks, the trees have been planted haphazardly. These have been planted in the middle of the parks leaving no space for the children to play and visitors to sit. There is absolutely no planning. The bushes and the plants are overgrown and need pruning. No one ever comes for maintenance. Similarly, the infrastructure facilities in the parks are not up to the mark. The water valve is missing in some places,” adds MC Gulati, RWA member. The residents have suggested that the parks be developed as model parks. After discussing the matter with the officials of the horticulture wing, HUDA, Yadav agreed to develop one park as a model park.

Says VK Nirala, executive engineer, horticulture department, HUDA, “We have received the instructions and soon we will be developing one park as a model park. We will do the designing and beautification work by setting stones at the entrance and inside as well. Since the maintenance of a model park is an issue as we have to arrange for guards as well, plans are on to convert one park into a model park as if now.”

Nirala accepted the fact that the parks have no space for people to sit and children to play. “I agree that trees are planted unevenly in the middle of the parks and this causes inconvenience to the visitors. But we can’t do anything or cut the trees. These have been planted like this since the establishment of sector,” he adds.

Regarding the regular cleaning of sewerlines, Yadav also instructed the concerned officials to arrange for proactive cleaning. “Rather than waiting for the residents’ complaints about the overflowing of sewerlines, it is important for officials to arrange regular cleaning,” said Yadav.

Source-http://paper.hindustantimes.com