Ahmedabad Traffic Police and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation have prepared a joint traffic management master plan that aims to make the city traffic signal-free within one year, according to a report by Divya Bhaskar. The plan focuses on redesigning 104 major junctions and using capsule-shaped layouts to keep vehicles moving more continuously.
Under the proposed approach, direct cuts or straight crossings at selected junctions will be closed either permanently or temporarily using barricades or traffic islands. The arrangement is intended to prevent vehicles approaching from four directions from conflicting directly at the same point. With signals removed at such locations, the authorities expect waiting time for motorists to reduce.
The planned capsule-shaped junctions will alter how traffic enters, circulates through and exits key intersections. Rather than allowing vehicles to cross directly through the centre of a junction, the layout will guide them around a redesigned island or closed cut. The report said the method is being applied to improve traffic movement at about 104 main junctions across Ahmedabad.
Traffic Deputy Commissioner of Police Naresh Kanzariya said several circles in the city would be made smaller in the coming days. The police also plan to modify road designs and close additional cuts as part of the effort to make traffic flow more seamless, the report said.
The master plan represents a joint intervention by the city’s traffic police and civic administration. Traffic police are responsible for managing vehicle movement and enforcement, while the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation controls key elements of the road environment, including junction geometry, traffic islands and related civic works. The proposed changes therefore depend on coordination between operational traffic management and physical road redesign.
The plan’s central premise is that signals are not the only way to manage competing traffic movements at busy intersections. By reducing direct crossing points and reshaping junctions, the authorities intend to reduce the number of vehicle movements that meet at the same time. The approach also means that road users will have to follow revised movement patterns wherever cuts are closed or circles are reduced.
The report did not provide a detailed list of all 104 junctions, a junction-wise implementation schedule, the estimated cost of the works or the criteria that will be used to measure the reduction in waiting time. It also did not specify whether the signal-free treatment will apply permanently at every location or whether some changes will initially be tested through temporary barricades and islands.
For residents and daily commuters, the immediate impact will depend on which junctions are altered first and how clearly the revised routes are marked. The authorities’ stated next steps are to reduce the size of more circles, redesign roads and close further cuts as they work towards the one-year signal-free traffic target.
