Saleem gives his vote to the manual method

BANGALORE: The city’s dreams of being the first to utilise a virtual Area Traffic Control System may never see the day light. According to the Assistant Commissioner Police Mohammed Abdulla Saleem, the system ‘the results may not be as fruitful’. He said that he feels that the manual method still reigns supreme over the automated one.While Saleem seems to prefer old school, his predecessor, Praveen Sood was confident about the intelligent signal and its capacity to adhere to the city’s traffic needs. City Express had published a report on June 28, titled ‘Smart move, a smart signal for better traffic’, which stated the former commissioner’s visions of a  futuristic manner to ease the city’s heavy traffic. Sood had said that unlike the previous ATCs, the new ATCs would function on a virtual loop and that by the end of July, four traffic signals will be installed on MG Road — Queen’s Statue Circle (JDP junction), Anil Kumble Circle, Cauvery junction (Brigade Road) and Webbs junction  (Dickinson Road). These signals would be equipped with cameras that would survey the number of vehicles and depending on the density it will automatically adjust the traffic signal to avoid delay and congestion.However, when contacted recently he said that due to connectivity issues they were unable to implement the same. “Over the last one month we have been trying to work with wireless connectivity for the ATCs. Examinations are still on,” he informed. Adhering to Sood’s comment, Saleem confirmed the examinations, however he did express his lack of faith in the system. “It is a very intelligent technology. There are only two companies at the moment that are manufacturing the software, one in London while the other is in Australia. I fear that the system may not yield results that could match the money spent on the system,” he revealed.Explaining his beliefs, Saleem said that since the density of vehicles in the city is so high, the system may not work as well as expected. “The system was installed in Delhi as well, but only in limited areas. If the vehicle capacity ratio was lower, it may work. Also, I think that we need to target the smaller roads instead of main roads. These small roads witness a higher density of traffic when compared to its counterpart,” he said.He further added that since everyone pays more attention to busy main roads, the small and residential roads are neglected. “Illegal parking and unmanned junctions are some of the issues that haunt these small roads. To sort this problem, we have started an initiative called the local area traffic management plan. It focuses on the obstacles that these roads bear testimony to and aims at resolving it,” he said.