NEW DELHI, INDIA: How about a traffic system that automatically informs you of congestion ahead and instructs you on the alternate route to your destination? Or, how about a smart card that enables you to pay the toll tax? All this and more may soon be a reality, at least on the Outer Ring Road, with the Public Works Department planning to hand over the road to the Delhi College of Engineering for a pilot study on ‘Intelligent Transport Systems’.

PWD chief engineer R. Subramaniam announced this in a workshop on ITS, conducted by the DCE on Tuesday. ITS is a combination of various fields like electronics, engineering, IT and communications, to make roads and traffic ‘‘smart’’, through the use of Global Positioning System and Geo Information System on a chip the size of a sim card.

‘‘The biggest incentive for the government is that ITS can go a long way in saving fuel and reducing pollution on the roads,’’ said Subramaniam.

In ITS, through CCTVs and sensors on the road, a central control room keeps tabs on road conditions, and the communication network already in place for cellphones will help disseminate information.

However, for the consumer, it would mean at least one small investment. Says Professor P B Sharma, principal, DCE: ‘‘The initial add-on cost would be for the installation of the GPS and GIS-enabled chip in the car that would make it connected to the area control network. That should cost a few thousand rupees.’’

Delhi already has some smaller modules in place. Dr M Parida, associate professor, department of civil engineering, IIT-Roorkee, says: ‘‘We already have an area traffic control in place. There is also a system of traffic information through the radio. All that just needs to be upgraded a little.’’

Dr Geetam Tiwari, associate professor, IIT-Delhi, though, said unless the non-motorised forms of transport like bicycles, cycle-rickshaws and pedestrians are weaved into the ITS project, ‘‘we can address the problem of just a little more than five per cent of Delhiites who travel by cars’’.

ITS for the uninitiated
Data acquisition through CCTVs/sensors
Data sent to the control room through suitable communication networks where it is instantaneously processed
Information disseminated to both consumers and transport managers
Information utilised to take appropriate steps to address the problems of that particular stretch

Source: expressindia.com