Dysfunctional traffic lights are one of the main reasons for bad traffic of Kathmandu. “If only the lights at the main junctions were working,” says Sumesh Gautam, a 33-year-old micro-bus driver, “there would be much better traffic flow.”

Especially during rush hours, there is a lot of jam. If a traffic police is absent at a junction even for 10 minutes, a chaos quickly ensues. “So why are traffic-lights not being fixed?” Gautam asks. Other drivers, and even traffic police personnel, pose similar questions.

“If there were working traffic lights, first, our human resources could be better utilized,” says DSP Krishna Dutta Bhatta of the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division (MPTD). “Second, it would be easier for the general public to follow traffic rules.” Around 1,450 traffic police personnel are deployed to control the traffic of Kathmandu alone, he adds. “An average of four traffic officers are required to handle traffic at a single junction.”

A normal shift of a traffic officer at a post is of around four hours, and some may stand at a junction for over 12 hours a day in various shifts. In case of conferences and special escorts where VIPs are involved, they have to spend up to 18 hours a day on the streets. “We still lack enough human resources to be able to change shifts. Thus during special programs a traffic officer has to continuously be on duty for 15 hours,” Bhatta says.

The MPTD has been pushing the Department of Roads (DoR) to install traffic lights around the city, according to Bhatta. Around eight months ago, they submitted proposals and sent written letters to DoR, as well as to Lalitpur and Kathmandu municipalities, for the same.

Dip Barahi, a senior divisional officer at the DoR, says there were plans to install 35 smart traffic lights around Kathmandu at an estimated cost of Rs 750 million. (In a smart system, traffic lights at different junctions are synchronized to ease traffic flow.) But later the department found out that actually it would cost a lot more. Bahari informs that the software that analyses traffic at different junctions and set timings for smart traffic lights alone would cost Rs 10 million. There were other problems too.

“There are no Intelligent Transport System (ITS) experts in Nepal,” says Barahi. “In fact there are just 14 ITS experts in the whole world. So installation of smart traffic lights in Nepal will take time. But we are still consulting some foreign experts.” Instead, the department is now planning to install eight regular traffic lights at the main junctions of Kathmandu, the tender for which has already been given.

“Within a year traffic lights at Singha Durbar, Bagbazar, Kalimati, Tinkune, New Baneshwor, Mitrapark, Thapathali and Gaushala junctions will be in operation,” Barahi assures. “Also, we are slowly starting to repair old traffic lights,” says Barahi. hatta of the traffic police hopes the traffic lights are being installed strategically. “There will continue to be traffic jams so long as lights at all main junctions are not working,” he warns.