The massive power outage in the city affected traffic management as 95 per cent of the 650 traffic signals and the entire CCTV network were dysfunctional. Police said that the entire force was deployed on the field to man the traffic. Without CCTVs, it was difficult to detect bottleneck and congested spots. Luckily, no spots faced severe congestion. However, there was chaos on BA Road and Nana Chowk due to the diversions in place on Peddar Road in the light of the recent landslide at Kemps Corner.
As soon as the power went off, CCTVs went blank, cutting the feed from roads to the traffic police headquarters at Worli. The traffic police network immediately swung into action. Traffic cops were contacted through walkie talkie and phones and deployed at traffic signals to man vehicular movement.
Dysfunctional traffic signals added to the Monday morning peak hours congestion. The south bound traffic was very heavy. "All traffic personnel were instructed to take the roads and manually manage the traffic between 10am and 1pm. Some of the most affected roads were the Western Express Highway, BA Road, Sion Trombay Road, Worli-Girgaum Chowpatty and Nana Chowk," said a senior traffic official.
On any given day, manual deployment is made at major traffic signals and the rest is managed from the control room using the vast network of CCTVs. However, this power outage saw the old school traffic policing with no signals and electronic surveillance, having a traffic policeman standing at every junction.
