Hi-tech Traffic in Bhubaneswar soon

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has roped in a private party to install upgraded signals called Intelligent Traffic System (ITS) on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis for 10 years.

The private party, Stanpower, a Hyderabad-based company, known for its innovative technology applications, is likely to give a presentation on ITS to traffic and BMC officials next week.

The BOT will facilitate the BMC to have full rights over the assets after 10 years. The company will only get advertisement rights and the cost of operation during the period.

The commissioner has written to Bhubaneswar DCP, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), regional transport officers and chief engineer of roads seeking their cooperation to adopt the system in the city. “If the stakeholders are convinced about the benefits of launching the technology in Bhubaneswar, the company will be given the go-ahead,” said the commissioner.

“ITS will help ease the traffic flow, reducing delays and fuel consumption of vehicles. It will also help monitor air and noise pollution,” said the commissioner.

The ITS uses technology such as CCTV camera-linked traffic controllers and central operation centres, where the computers analyse the traffic flow and disseminate traffic management information, added the commissioner.

“At times we fail to penalize the violators as we have to run after them. Once the technology is installed, we can penalize the commuters later as the CCTVs will capture the registration number of violating vehicles,” said traffic ACP Binod Das.

“The ITS technology is so sophisticated that it is able to detect any solid object near traffic posts. The system runs through a central server, which can maintain the database of all traffic signals of the city,” said a BMC official. (Source – The Times of India)