Countless mishaps have taken place all over the City during night hours due to vehicles colliding head-on onto barricades. But now some solution is at hand with the traffic police thinking of introducing safe and novel barricades.
One such unique barricade, created by the Bangalore-based Safetech Inc, is now on display at the Police Commissioner’s office on Infantry Road. It is fitted with two solar bulbs (technically known as solar delineators) at its two top corners. “It is the common barricade with reflective tapes along with the new additions. The bulbs get automatically charged when they absorb the solar energy during the day time and start flickering in red during the evening hours,” says a top traffic official. They glow alternatively thereby ensuring that there is lighting throughout.
Effective model
This model will be very effective at places where night time deviations have to be introduced. They can also be placed at spots where accidents have taken place or even at spots where vehicle breakdowns take place to alert other road users, he said. “We placed one near Raj Bhavan recently and found it very effective,” he adds.  
ACP (Planning) Narasimhaiah says that the bulb-fitted barricade was a sample piece and tenders will be called for supplying barricades shortly.
A top official at the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited  (KRDCL), which procures equipment for the City police says, “It is vital that barricades placed across the road are highly visible. We plan to place tenders for procuring the solar barricades shortly. We are in the process of estimating how many solar barricades we will need and the cost involved.
“The whole process would be over within a month’s time. We have seen one sample solar piece. We hope to see improvised solar barricades when we finalise the order.”
A rough estimate of 500 solar barricades would be required to man the City safely during nights. “These barricades have been used by the PWD department temporarily at the outskirts during the construction phase at nights. But this is the first time the police plan to officially use it within the City.”
Vandal-proof
“Another aspect that we have to bear in mind is that solar panels tend to get stolen easily and fetch a good price in the market. So, we have to look at a model that is vandal-proof and this has to be incorporated in the design itself”, the officials said.
Partner at Safetech Inc S Prakash said, “The sample piece we have displayed costs Rs 10,800. Comparatively, the general barricade costs only Rs 4,500 and the reflective one costs Rs 5,200. We have already supplied more than 30 pieces each to Davanagere, Raichur, Gulbarga, Udupi and Belgaum among other districts. Big organisation like IOC and NICE too are our customers.”
A total of 2,000 barricades have been procured by the City police recently.  But they are the general barricades with reflective stickers which are used as road dividers or lane markers.