Nashik will bring monitoring and management of all 70 traffic signals under the Nashik Municipal Smart City Development Corporation Ltd (NMSCDCL) before the 2027 Simhastha Kumbh Mela, creating a single agency responsible for signal operations across the city.
The Smart City Corporation currently manages 40 traffic signals developed under the Smart City Mission, while the Nashik Municipal Corporation oversees 30 older signals. Civic authorities are now upgrading the older installations before transferring their management to NMSCDCL. The takeover is expected to be completed by March 2027.
NMSCDCL chief executive officer Sumant More told the Times of India that the corporation was preparing to upgrade the 30 signals currently managed by the civic body. “Currently, we monitor and manage 40 traffic signals across the city that were developed under the Smart City Mission. Around 30 older traffic signals are being managed by the NMC. We are now in the process of upgrading these signals, and the work will be completed before the Simhastha Kumbh Mela next year,” he said.
Once the work is completed, the Smart City Corporation will assume responsibility for monitoring and managing all 70 signals. The move follows a suggestion from Nashik police commissioner Sandeep Karnik, who urged civic authorities to place all traffic signals under one administrative umbrella.
At present, the division of responsibility between NMSCDCL and the NMC can require police personnel to coordinate with different agencies depending on the location of a faulty signal or the nature of a maintenance complaint. Officials said this arrangement can delay the response to technical problems and make it more difficult to identify the agency responsible for resolving an issue.
“The police administration had suggested that all signals should be managed by one agency. It becomes easier to coordinate when there is only one organisation responsible for operations and maintenance. The idea is to improve efficiency and ensure quicker resolution of traffic signal issues,” More said.
NMSCDCL has already established a centralised command-and-control system for the 40 signals developed under the Smart City Mission. The planned expansion will extend the corporation’s monitoring responsibility to the older signals after they are upgraded. This will give the police a single point of contact for signal-related operational issues across Nashik.
The consolidation is also being planned in the run-up to the 2027 Simhastha Kumbh Mela, when Nashik is expected to manage increased traffic and movement across the city. The report does not specify the individual upgrade works, their cost or whether the unified system will include additional traffic-management features beyond monitoring and maintenance.
The immediate milestone is the completion of upgrades to the 30 NMC-managed signals. According to the Smart City Corporation, the upgrade and transfer of responsibility are scheduled to be completed by March 2027, ahead of the Kumbh Mela.
