Police force celebrates Bengaluru’s first-ever traffic signal, installed in 1963

B N Garudachar, who oversaw the installation of the signal, said heavy traffic at the junction in 1963 necessitated the signal

The city traffic police on Monday celebrated Bengaluru’s first traffic signal installed at NR Junction nearly 60 years ago.

City Police Commissioner Kamal Pant and Joint Commissioner (Traffic) B R Ravikanthe Gowda took part at a small function. The signal was installed in 1963, when C Chandy was Commissioner of Police and B N Garudachar was Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic).

Garudachar, who oversaw the installation of the signal, said heavy traffic at the junction in 1963 necessitated the signal.

The 93-year-old former policeman, father of MLA Uday Garudachar, told DH: “The traffic in this junction at the time was so severe that it would have been difficult to manage without a traffic signal. That is why Chandy, the city’s first police commissioner, and I decided to install the traffic lights here.”

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Some of the materials used in making the signal were brought from different places, especially from Madras (Chennai), Garudachar said.

"The mechanism behind the traffic lights cannot be explained because it involved the expertise of technicians in both the cities," he said.

Speaking after laying the stone, Pant said, “We have installed thousands of CCTV cameras and hundreds of traffic signals across the city. But the initiative from senior officers has led to today's traffic regulation work, which is efficiently happening on such a large scale.”

Transport expert M N Sreehari said the city’s traffic signal system has come a long way since those early days.

"Those were the isolated traffic signals with no connection between two junctions. Everything had to be operated manually”, Sreehari explained.