• Traffic bottleneck becomes a daily affair
• Signals remain unrepaired for months

Mysuru: Traffic snarls have become a daily affair at three major junctions in the city, where faulty signal lights are making things difficult for motorists, two-wheeler riders and the Traffic Police.

The affected junctions are the KRS Road-Ring Road Junction near Royal Inn Hotel in Metagalli, Hunsur Road-General Thimayya Road Junction near Aishwarya Petrol Bunk in Vijayanagar and Temple Road-KRS Road Junction near V.V. Puram Traffic Police Station.

With the signals not functioning properly, traffic congestion has become a daily affair, particularly at the KRS Road-Ring Road and Hunsur Road-General Thimayya Road junctions, which witness heavy traffic throughout the day.

Frequent traffic jams and minor accidents have added to the woes of commuters. All three junctions come under the jurisdiction of V.V. Puram Traffic Police Station. Citizens and commuters have questioned why signals at such busy intersections are not being properly maintained.

At the Hunsur Road-General Thimayya Road Junction, the absence of a functioning automated system has forced Traffic Police personnel to manually regulate the signals. Situation becomes particularly difficult on weekends when traffic volume increases sharply. Police personnel have little respite as they have to continuously monitor and regulate the movement of vehicles.

KRS Road-Ring Road Junction

The KRS Road-Ring Road Junction faces severe congestion on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. Ongoing railway underpass and road-widening works have blocked free left turns, restricting the smooth movement of vehicles towards adjoining roads. The construction work has further aggravated the bottleneck and commuters fear that the problem will continue until the works are completed.

Only one Traffic Policeman is deployed at the Junction. Though automatic signals are in place, motorists say the system is outdated and unable to cope with present-day traffic volumes.

The fixed timers do not take into account the volume of traffic from different directions, resulting in vehicles being held up even when one side has relatively little traffic. Motorists feel that manual regulation would be more effective until an advanced, adaptive signal system is installed.

Temple Road-KRS Road Junction

At the Temple Road-KRS Road Junction, the signals have remained unrepaired for months despite increasing traffic during morning and evening peak hours. Pedestrians too face difficulty crossing the road safely.

Citizens have also questioned the decision to install nearly 50 new signals across Mysuru without upgrading several older systems. They allege that the unscientific placement and poor coordination of signals have created additional bottlenecks at some locations instead of easing traffic.

Residents say the condition of these three junction points to a larger problem in city’s traffic management. They have urged the City Traffic Police to ensure regular maintenance of existing signals and modernise the system to handle the growing volume of traffic.