NHAI Initiates New Surveillance System for National Highways
Taking a cue from the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH), the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) initiated the installation of a new surveillance system for national highways. The surveillance facility is a leg of the NHAI’s ongoing Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS), which also is known as Traffic Incident Emergency Management System (TIMS).
By the end of 2018, the National Highways Authority of India may make the new surveillance system functional at ten major Toll plazas. In the long run, the autonomous agency will expand it to 200 plazas. The project aims to subsume existing security and traffic infrastructure at all Toll gates. The initial phase of the project is estimated to be completed in 6 months from the time of initiation.
The new surveillance system is equipped with the latest technology, low-latency Internet Protocol (IP) cameras and advanced imaging systems. The IP cameras will gather real-time data on the flow of traffic at Toll gantries by means of secure local Internet connections. The retrieved information will be sent to the RO and the NHAI command centres. This information will further help administers to take the necessary measures to handle incidents.
The IP cameras captures time-stamped photographs for every half an hour and sends them to the NHAI and RO command centres. If the traffic congestion crosses the limit, the system notifies the command centre authorities by taking the video recording of the incident. The system changes from camera mode to video when the congestion with traffic is more.
The new surveillance system gives the NHAI and road authorities full power to track and monitor highways and Toll gates. These systems will work around the clock. The high integration of technology enables the system to be active throughout day and night. Also, if the traffic in a junction or Toll lane don’t settle within 30 minutes, the system sends alerts to command centres to take immediate actions to normalise the situation.
The NHAI’s surveillance system will give live data on the entire stretch of the highways and Toll gates. The high-speed Internet connectivity eases the transition of information to and fro the system and command centres. The Incident Management System (IMS) is set to modernise the highways sector and the new surveillance system fuels the procedure to fulfil the motive. The new surveillance system is built-in high-resolution cameras, high-quality sensors, and database to enhance the flow of traffic in the country.
The IMS system collects the data on road incidents, from sensors, and sends the data to the command station to dispatch the relevant facilities to the area of incident. The emergency facilities can be ambulances, cranes, tow-away vehicles, and other disaster eradication amenities. The new surveillance enables IMS and improves the nodal networks in the country.
IMS facilitates real-time traffic monitoring, traffic signal monitoring and control, traffic camera monitoring and control, road weather information system, and other information. It gathers real-time information from software and uses the information to simulate maps, and relay it to the command centres for integration and processing.
From managing traffic to safeguarding the traveller, the new surveillance system is set to solve major setbacks in the road and highway sector.
#SurveillanceSystem #TollPlaza #MinistryofRoadTransport