NHAI refuses to pay electricity bills

KOCHI: Even as accidents are on an increase,  dispute over maintenance and repair of traffic signals remain; the latest being an accident at Cheranallur bypass container road due to the dysfunctional traffic light. According to sources, the traffic signal system in the bypass junction was cut-off, as National Highways Authority of India (NAHI) didn’t pay its dues in time . Edappally Assistant Police Commissioner Baby Vinod said, “the NHAI had not paid the bill for the past two months. They kept on passing the responsibility to the police department. These people were the ones who set up the signal in that area. It is their responsibility to be maintaining it and not pushing off the responsibility to someone else.” It seems that the NHAI were given the task of setting up traffic signals in four junctions in the city, including the present one, when Prime Minister had visited the State a few months ago. The other signals under the NHAI jurisdiction include Ayappankavu junction, Mulavukadu junction and Kalamassery junction. Now, even though the signal was once again brought back into working condition when the police paid the bill, the police says that it tjhey are not bound by to pay the bill. “1No where in the State the police department is bound to pay for the maintenance of the traffic signals. This cannot go on,” the Assistant Commissioner said.  The KSEB officials said that they had given prior warning to the NHAI to pay the dues, but the NHAI kept on passing the buck to the local bodies, police and even to Soma constructions which pays the bill for a few traffic signals. “It is only a matter of payment of only around `800 per month for these signals. Such a meager amount of money cannot take precedence over road safety”, he said “ I will be bringing this issue to the the Collector’s notice on Monday. How can the NHAI expect us to pay the bill when we do not have extra funding for this. Either a separate fund for road safety has to be created, or the responsibility has to be taken-up by the local bodies. Whatever the issue, a consensus has to be reached on who should be responsible for paying the traffic signal bills in the city.”