Almost all of India's cities have one massive problem: traffic. With thousands of cars and two-wheelers being registered every day, and road-building not even close to keeping pace, our abiding experience of Indian cities is likely to be that of a person stuck on the roads, getting late for an event. Which is why cities like Meerut are trying to think of unique ways to reduce the jams.

Meerut is now working on a pilot project that has an echo thousands of kilometers away in Kinshasa, the capital city of Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa. Authorities there decided they would use robots to reduce traffic, removing the need for someone from the traffic police to man busy intersections. The solar-powered arm-waving robots have cameras that record the traffic, and clear signs as well as loudspeakers to direct the vehicles. And, as one taxi driver notes, they also reduce the likelihood of policemen harassing people at intersections.

And this tech could soon be coming to Meerut. The idea of bringing robotics into traffic management is the brainchild of Deputy Inspector General, Ramit Sharma, who is an engineering graduate. “We have been trying to come up with ways to utilize technology in a way that it makes policing easier. The idea behind this initiative is that we can use small bust robots on selected crossings and points in the city," he told the Times of India. "We simply have to synchronise them with the existing traffic signals at those points and the robot will then stand in the middle, managing the flow of traffic. This will mean that the traffic cop, who had to stand in the middle of the crossing, will now be free to monitor traffic and issue challans."

Authorities in the city have asked engineering colleges to build a robot that might be suitable for the purpose, but Meerut could easily look overseas to Kinshasa for one example that seems to have worked.