What is ‘One-Minute Traffic Plan’ to be implemented in Shimla?

In order to ease traffic congestion in the hill station, the Shimla police has come up with a 'One Minute Traffic Light Plan' to set up traffic lights at 10 bottlenecks in the city to make it jam-free and reduce the commute time by more than half. It usually takes 60 to 90 minutes to cross the city during peak hours. The new system aims to reduce the time to 15 to 25 minutes.

Roads in Shimla often become choked with traffic during the peak tourist season starting from April 15 to June 15. This year, in April alone, about 9.92 lakh vehicles entered and exited Shimla, as per police data.

Under the ‘One-Minute Traffic Plan’, based on time, number, and space, traffic would be released every minute in the ratio of 40:20 or 30:30 seconds, meaning that the vehicles would be halted for 40 seconds and released for 20 seconds every minute during rush hours. These will be released and halted for 30 seconds during normal times. The halting distance will be no more than 500 metres at any point.

The idea is to reduce traffic congestion at 16 major bottlenecks in the city, which leads to long duration jams when the tourist season peaks. A proposal to set up traffic lights has been sent to the transport department, SP Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi told PTI.

Areas where traffic lights are slated to come include Tara Devi near Shoghi, Heeranagar, Chhabra, St Bede's College, IGMC on Sanjauli-Lakkar Bazaar stretch, between Fagli and Khalani on Shimla-Malyana Bypass, and Willows Bank on Vidhan Sabha-Advanced Studies road. Three other places where these lights will come up have been kept reserved in view of tourist and apple season.

The idea is to make the city traffic-free, give uninterrupted access to hospitals and emergency services, decrease the time of commuting, prioritise commute time of school children in the morning and afternoon and ease workers' rush during 9-11 am and 5-7 pm.