Tram Mishap in Kolkata: Current Collector Rod Damages Traffic Signal Post

On Monday morning, the current collector rod of a tram struck a traffic signal post in front of the Lake Mall on Rashbehari Avenue, breaking it and leaving it dangling over the road for approximately an hour.

An officer from the traffic department of Kolkata Police stated that the tram's bogies had passed the signal post when the current collector became detached from the overhead electric lines that powered the tram.

A tram's current collector is an apparatus that rises from the rear bogie and is fixed to the overhead lines. It uses the cables above to get electricity.

The current collector was hanging free from the above wires, and the driver was blind to this fact.

Due to inertia, the tram continued to move forward even though the current collector was hanging. It struck the signal post, shattering it in the process. The policeman explained that the signal post broke because it had also corroded.

According to the officer, the event occurred at 10.30 am, and the damaged signal post was taken out of the area an hour later.

Initially, the police considered temporarily limiting traffic on the section of Rashbehari Avenue close to the shopping center.

Due to Monday being a holiday, there were less cars on the route, hence there was no need for a traffic limit along that particular section of road.

Due to a broken post that was hanging over the right lane of the flank, all cars were instructed to use the left lane when crossing Rashbehari Avenue and SP Mukherjee Road.

According to the traffic police officer, no complaints were made by the police against the driver of the tram.

"We'll be replacing the signal post soon. The secondary signal post was located here. The officer stated, "The main signal post is still in place and operational.

Metro had previously reported on the dilapidated state of the roadside poles in Calcutta.

Most of the poles have a dense bundle of cables wrapped around them, and the weight of the cables has tipped the poles in several locations.

In addition, a number of cables were wrapped around the Lake Market traffic signal pole that collapsed on Monday.

Recently, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), which is responsible for maintaining the electric poles along the city's highways, made the decision to forbid any advertisements from appearing on them.

As these made the structures hazardous, a KMC official stated that the local body would not provide any further permissions for the installation of advertisements on power poles.

Attached to the traffic signal pole that collapsed on Monday was a rectangular advertisement board.

According to a KMC representative, all ads that are affixed to traffic signal posts were done so with approval from the police alone, and the civic body is not responsible for maintaining them.

According to a traffic police officer, senior brass at Kolkata Police has not yet given the order to take down the advertisements from the signal poles.