Erratic traffic lights at Keishampat traffic point leave many 'caught in Red'
No timers, no yellow lights subject motorists to 'fines'
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, January 05 2024: At a time when managing family expenses has become extraordinarily difficult for majority of the people, a serious allegation of Traffic police personnel collecting unauthorised fine at the four-way intersection Keishampat junction has emerged with many commuters questioning the reliability of the traffic signals.

The traffic signals work fine at the Keishampat junction except for the timer, and the yellow light which signals a motorist to slow down, which gives countdown for heading to the Imphal Airport side.

Erratic traffic lights at Keishampat traffic point leave many 'caught in Red'

It is not known whether the timer stopped working due to technical programme or is being switched off by the Traffic personnel everyday deliberately.

Whatever the reason is, the non-indication of the timer is a major setback to the commuters as they are often detained and imposed a fine by the Traffic police personnel on the charge of violating Traffic Rules.

The Sangai Express also examined what has been happening at the Keishampat junction for four days and saw the timer indicating the countdown for heading to the Airport side working perfectly fine at some moments and not working most of the time.

When contacted, the SP of Traffic Police W Kasar told The Sangai Express that the working of the traffic lights is under the Smart City Project, which has its office at the Secretariat.

At times the traffic lights are switched off when there is VVIP movement on the road stretch, said the SP and added that they do not otherwise meddle with the timer or the traffic lights.

The SP however added that he would personally inspect the working of the particular traffic lights tomorrow.

It has been learnt that the yellow traffic light which indicates slow down of all directions at Keishampat junction and many other places is also not working so the vehicles heading to the Airport side are at the risk of meeting accidents due to the timer factor.

It is natural that most people will rush when there is a green signal but those heading to the Airport side don't know when to stop as there is no timer and it increases the risk of road accidents.

The red and green lights, however, function without any issue.

To those heading towards the Airport side, the timer factor has become very problematic as they don't have any idea when the red light will appear and make them pay a fine for violating traffic rules by the Traffic police personnel.

Any people who take the Keishampat junction regularly can see that the Traffic personnel in the intersection mostly check and detain the vehicles taking the Airport road, the side where there is timer issue.

The Sangai Express has also seen the Traffic police personnel detaining and taking the vehicle documents of at least two or three vehicles whenever the Airport side of the intersection was opened for traffic movement during the field inspection.The interesting thing is that the Traffic police personnel charge Rs 2,500 on average for violating Traffic rules but they mostly don't issue any challan for the fine taken, as per a group of commuters who were fined by the Traffic police personnel.

The so-called violators are often released after coughing up Rs 500 or Rs 1,000 based on level of the negotiation to the Traffic police personnel.

The Sangai Express has also taken pictures of the commuters paying a fine to Traffic police in front of its booth at Keishampat and spoke with some of the commuters shortly after they paid the fines.

They said that they were caught in the middle of the crossing for violating Traffic Rules.

Arguing that the red light only appeared when they reached the middle of the crossing, they asked how they can know when the duration of the green light or go ahead signal will end without the timer.

Many of them also questioned whether the timer indicating movement was deliberately switched off by the Traffic police personnel or have any technical problem.

They further asked if there indeed is a technical programme then why is the timer which has not been working for so many days not repaired till today.

One Ibomcha from Nambol said that he paid Rs 1,000 and questioned why the timer indicating movement towards Nambol is not working.

An auto-rickshaw driver who runs along the Imphal-Malom route said that his vehicle documents have been seized by Traffic police personnel.

Saying that he came out of his home with only Rs 100 as fuel money and went to drop a reserved passenger at Konung Mamang, the driver added that he was detained by the Traffic police personnel at the Keishampat junction while returning to Malom.

He further said that he followed other vehicles when there was a green light but the light suddenly turned red when he reached the middle of the crossing.

Stating that the Traffic personnel demanded Rs 500 from him to release the documents, the driver dejectedly said that he had informed his family to bring the money.

From what The Sangai Express observed in the last four days, the Traffic police personnel mostly focused on the Airport side of the Keishampat junction detaining commuters and no personnel were seen on the other three directions.