Delhi To Have AI-Based Traffic System By End Of 2024: Official

The national capital will have an artificial intelligence-based traffic system by the end of next year to reduce congestion and facilitate faster and smarter vehicular movement, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Speaking at ASSOCHAM seventh road safety conference here, Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Surender Singh Yadav mentioned that the Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) would take another one or one-and-half-years to be fully implemented and is being done at the cost of around Rs 1,400 crore.

Mr Yadav, who is part of a special committee on road safety constituted by the Supreme Court, informed that they are working on technology initiatives to make the traffic much more smooth in the national capital.

"We are working on ways to see how technology can improve the commute at emergency corridors and emergency services. We are also looking at how we can improve upon our traffic control rooms and their communication with the ambulance networks," he said.

ITMS is a technology that employs AI to assess traffic in real time. When implemented, it is likely to change the traffic scenario in the city. Real time traffic information will be passed to commuters. The human interface in road management will be reduced and traffic signals will operate automatically during the day depending on traffic volume and average speed on the road, the statement said quoting Yadav.

He added that the government is putting a lot of emphasis on road safety due to the rising number of fatalities.

"Around 2,300 crashes were reported in Delhi which accounted for 40 per cent pedestrian mishappenings. With 3.5 lakh violations per month for red light and over speeding, responsible behaviour is crucial for all vehicle owners," he said.

"A study is being carried out to ascertain the traffic volume, average speed on the road, number of pedestrians using the road, stoppage time and average travel time taken to cross the junction. The survey will also include the geographic information systems to predict likely traffic movement in real time depending on the area and topography in the national capital," Yadav said.

"Delhi has about 1.4 crore traffic challans pending, each month only red light jumping has 3.5 lakh challans in the capital. We are in touch with insurance companies to include pending traffic violation challans in the vehicle insurance policy at the time of renewal each year," he said.

Vinod Pandey, chairperson ASSOCHAM Global Value Chain Council, emphasised the safety of the vehicle which is a major influencer offering safer tools to avoid any fatality.

"With increasing digital transformation, there is a wide scope of umpteen opportunities like vehicle-to-vehicle communication, e-call, safety alerts, and anti-lock braking systems (ABS). Regular vehicle inspections and maintenance checks can help ensure that vehicles are roadworthy," he added. 

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