CHENNAI: With the city Corporation set to soon engage a consultant to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) for designing the smart traffic and transport services, the city may soon be taking the ‘smart’ route to manage traffic and transport for both user and administrative convenience.The project,which has two sub-systems — Intelligent Traffic Management and Intelligent Transport Management — is to be funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a governmental agency that coordinates official development assistance (ODA) for the government of Japan.
If the project takes off, the average travel speed in the city may be improved with the proposed advanced traffic signal coordination system. The project also has a set of other proposals such as the probe car system that will provide road users congestion status on road network and expected travel time so that users may decide to take an alternative route.
According to official sources, traffic management has been envisaged across 435 junctions across the city, of which 159 will be covered in the first phase. The Transport Management System, on the other hand, has been envisaged for the whole of the Metropolitan Transport Corporation’s fleet and depots, also in a phased manner.
The project is also set to ease administrative difficulties with its CCTV enforcement system for vehicles violating traffic rules, number plate recognition system, automatic traffic counter and classifier system to measure the volume of traffic on the major trunk roads that can be used for road management and planning.
The project also proposes to weigh the axles of heavy vehicles to strengthen enforcement of overloading.
For commercial vehicles waiting in the vicinity of Chennai Port, a queue length management system has been proposed where metal detectors would be used to measure the queue of vehicles and furnish information on the expected waiting time to enter the port.
The smart way
Average travel speed in the city to be improved with advanced traffic signal coordination system
System will provide road users congestion status and expected travel time so they may decide on alternative route
CCTV cameras to monitor vehicles violating traffic rules