Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 24: Alleging that flawed way-finding signages have been installed in Jammu under Smart City Project, RTI activist Balvinder Singh today said that the Government must blacklist and take action against the faulty consultants hired for execution of Smart City projects.
He was addressing a press conference at Jammu along with other civil society members including Manjit Singh Bali, Manmohan Singh, Mahesh Singh Kotwal and Ayaz Ahmad Khan. Singh told media persons that for execution and implementation of 52 Smart City projects, the UT administration hired Rodic Consultants Private Limited and a very handsome amount is agreed to have been paid to them. Click here to watch video
The RTI activist said that the Consultant firm has declared in their mission on the website that it is committed to quality and stringent adherence to global benchmarks of excellence but we see that there a number of flaws in the installation of way-finding signages installed in the entire city with a project cost of Rs 10.2 crore.
Singh said that the way-finding signage informs, directs and guides people unfamiliar with the area and therefore, signage must be in right place, pointing to the most logical directions and should be noticeable at the operating speed. He said another important aspect of the way-finding signages is the continuity so that a visitor needs not to ask or enquire at any intersection till he/she reaches his/her final destination.
“But, more than 50 % of the signages installed in Jammu City don’t have continuity. Such is the signage installed at Digiana near Akali Kour Singh Nagar for showing way to Jhiri and Talab Tillo but both the directions are missing at every coming intersection,” he regretted.
He further said that the every guideline for way-finding signages states that the location and legibility of the road signs should be such that the visitor may get adequate response time to read and take action at the operating speed but signage installed 100 metres before the Kunjwani Rotary has been made so complicated as names of 15 destinations clubbed together, making it impossible for a road-user to take not of them without stopping.
Singh said some signages have been installed in such places where they are not visible to the road users while some others have been fixed over the footpath but with a height of 4 feet, resulting in obstruction of the pedestrian movement.
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