NHAI Installs Cameras at Toll Plazas to Reduce Congestion

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), in its bid to monitor traffic and tackle congestion on highways, has decided to put a surveillance system for real-time updates of congestion across all major toll plazas. In the coming six months, the system will be operational on 10 plazas with a plan for extending it to 200 where the daily traffic exceeds 10,000 vehicles. The surveillance system will be a part of the Incident Management System which was introduced by the autonomous agency of the Government of India earlier. This initial phase of this project has a 6 months pre-set completion margin from the date of its commencement.

The latest surveillance system will collect traffic data at Toll plazas via its low-latency Internet Protocol (IP) cameras and a unique imaging technology and divert it to a command and control centre situated in a Regional Office (RO) which is governing the highway area. Further explaining the functionality of the system, Akhilesh Srivastava, CGM (IT & Operations), NHAI, has said that once the IP cameras are fully operational, they will hand over time-stamped photographs to the command centre of the NHAI.

As the traffic near the Toll lane increases and goes beyond the mandated limit, the camera switches to video mode automatically and a live-stream of data starts, keeping the command centre updated and alerted. If, in case, the flow of traffic fails to smoothen within half an hour of the alert, the system sends signals to the command centres for dispatching special units for mitigation.

The surveillance system will transfer the control of the entire highway functioning to the command centre, including 24 hour live feed access of the highways. To ease the transition from the existing infrastructural facilities to technologically updated amenities, the NHAI has already equipped all concerned RO command centres with high-speed Internet.

The Incident Management System (IMS), which was earlier introduced by the NHAI gathers data on incidents, such as accidents and notifies the command station. In case of such happenings, this system is equipped with facilities such as ambulances, cranes, tow-away vehicles, etc. These amenities are placed at consistent distances on the highways in case of emergencies. The IMS also collects real-time information such as equipment and software, making use of it in stimulating 3D maps, and transfers to a command centre for integration and processing.

Highways minister Shri Nitin Gadkari has also confirmed that the NHAI will soon sign a deal with Korea Expressway Corporation, which handles its entire highway operations via a Traffic Management Centre using sophisticated AV (Audio-Visual) technology. The highways minister reiterated that the technology will allow the personnel to view 70 separate images of the entire highways network on a single screen. It also assures convenience in tracking vehicles on the highways, which can be done by entering the respective vehicle’s registration number.

#AkhileshSrivastava #NHAI #TollPlaza #CongestionMonitoringonHighways

Naresh Puppala is a Hyderabad native writer with 5 years of experience and he also actively participate in social media and blogging. He's very passionate in writing articles.