Soon, AI-powered traffic system on Mumbai Pune Expressway

Maharashtra's first Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) on Mumbai-Pune Expressway aims to enhance road safety with AI-enabled cameras and e-challans.

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) is installing the state’s first Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) on Mumbai-Pune Expressway, where the average traffic on weekdays and weekends hovers around 40,000 and 60,000 vehicles, respectively. The system, which will modernise traffic management and enhance road safety, will be operational by the first week of June, said highway police officials and senior officials from MSRDC.

The system, which will modernise traffic management and enhance road safety, will be operational by the first week of June. (HT PHOTO)

For the first phase, 39 gantries have been erected on a 95-kilometre stretch of the expressway, and 218 artificial intelligence-enabled CCTV cameras have been mounted on the gantries to detect 17 types of traffic violations. All the cameras and toll booths will be equipped with automatic number plate recognition, which will enable the police to issue e-challans.

All entries to the expressway will be equipped with weigh-in motion machines for goods carriers, while weather monitoring systems will be installed at 11 locations, said officials. All existing emergency vehicles including 36 including tow vans, cranes and ambulances will be equipped with vehicle tracking systems, while variable messaging sign boards at 23 different locations would deliver important information to motorists, including real-time updates on traffic conditions, road closures, and weather.

Tanaji Chikle, superintendent of Highway Traffic Police (Panvel), said that the cutting-edge technology would improve road management and motorists’ safety in a major way.

“At present, though speed-monitoring CCTVs are installed at select junctions and crossovers on the expressway, motorists often slow down only when they approach these cameras or spot traffic police personnel,” said Chikle. Motorists use several mobile apps that alert them about the presence of speed cameras or even traffic police personnel in advance, making it easy for them to slow down at the monitoring point, he noted.

“Under ITMS, the live feed of a vehicle that has been found speeding or violating traffic rules continuously will be sent to the toll booth ahead, and a hooter will be sounded off when the vehicle nears it. This will help in enforcing traffic rules and discipline,” said Chikle.

E-challans will be issued through the ITMS and the traffic police will not issue ‘no dues certificate’ to vehicle owners who do not clear pending challans, said officials. Such certificates are required during renewal of registration of heavy vehicles.

The ITMS will also ease removal of broken-down vehicles from the highway and aid traffic movement, he noted. “Given the heavy volume of traffic, huge jams are common, especially when heavy vehicles break down in the Borghat area,” said Chikale. Although cranes are on standby for such mishaps, they take more than an hour to reach the spot at present.

“During trial runs of the ITMS, which provides information of broken-down vehicles much faster, the response time has been reduced to half-an-hour,” said Chikle.

After the ITMS is installed on Mumbai-Pune Expressway, work on setting up a similar system on the Samruddhi Mahamarg will be taken up, making it the second ITMS-equipped highway in the state.