Jammu, Aug 5: The first ever traffic signals installed in the city only added to the chaos – at least for the first day despite being Sunday.
 A day after the installation of Electronic Traffic Signal Lights System (ETSLS) at ten crossing of the city roads, the chaotic situation prevailed as motorists and police had to struggle a lot while negotiating with these blinking lights.
 Believe it or not people at some of the places were stopping “voluntarily” on the red light – some observing the traffic regulations, others out of excitement. However, in most of the cases the motorists were seen confused or at least – least bothered.
 Traffic Signal Lights in the city were made functional after a long wait on Saturday when the Deputy Chief Minister accompanied by at least four other ministers inaugurated the signals in Jammu.
 Out of the total of 30 lights installed, in the first instance 10 have been commissioned and the rest would be dedicated to the city in a phased manner.
 However, the people, who were waiting for the traffic lights anxiously, were seen struggling to cope up with the new system, especially when one has to negotiate between the mini-bus operators and auto-rickshaws – known as habitual offenders in Jammu.
 “You can see the young generation seems to be pretty excited and every one of them wants to adhere to the system”, Rohit Kumar, a University student at Bikram Chowk said adding, “It will take time for the people to adopt the new system. They are here used to a free for all kind of situation”.
 At some place like Narwal Chowk and Bithandi Morh the people were seen ignoring the lights. For some it was too difficult to understand. “Who cares about these lights. If you have no one from the other side why not to cross over”, an auto driver said, when asked why he was not adhering to the rules.
 Police personnel posted at Bikram Chowk said that they were facing lot of problems initially to enforce the motorist to follow the traffic signal. “It will take time to motorists to become habitual of it”, a traffic police officer said adding that the common mentality of motorist has invited many accidents like situation today.
 However, people accuse the law enforcement agencies as well. “You have to educate the people what yellow light means and when to actually stop at the signal”, Arvind Kumar, a pedestrian said adding, “You can not expect the people to learn and adhere themselves”

Lastupdate on : Sun, 5 Aug 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 5 Aug 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 6 Aug 2012 00:00:00 IST