Who keeps traffic lights glowing?
Currently, all 725 traffic lights and 435 blinkers in the Capital are being maintained by two private firms, CMS and Keltron. As per their contract with the Delhi Traffic Police, all minor repairs have to be done the same day. For instance, in case of a bulb fuse, the firms have to change it within four hours and they are given 12 hours to replace a cantilever pole. While the CMS maintains signals in South, Southwest, Central, and New Delhi areas, Keltron is in charge of Northeast, East, North, and Northwest Delhi. Each firm has one van for each district. In May, the Traffic Police had pulled up the two firms for inefficiency. According to their pact with the Traffic Police, the firms can even be penalised in case of failure to repair signals on time. Till the late 1980s, the transport department maintained all city traffic lights before the Traffic Police took over and outsourced the job first to Keltron, a PSU, and then to CMS.
