The traffic lights in Shimla were out of order for the past six months and traffic regulation was being done manually.

Four months ago, when the police had run out of ideas to bring the firm to task, it had approached the consumer court, which served a notice to the company. The police had claimed Rs 40,000 as harassment charges per month from the company if it failed to repair the traffic lights immediately.

In its plea to the consumer court, the police had said that it had invested Rs 8.6 lakh for installation of traffic signals at Victory Tunnel, Dhalli, Khailni and Boileauganj and the investment could not yield results because the private company had failed in maintenance. And, after the lights stopped working, at least two traffic personnel had to be posted for regulating traffic at each junction, increasing the burden on the police and leading to double expenditure on the same work.

Superintendent of Police, Shimla district, R.M. Sharma said, “Before re-opening of schools after the winter vacations, we wanted to ensure that the traffic lights in town start functioning. As we are short of staff, the cops spared from here would now be posted to regulate traffic outside schools situated on the main road.”