Highway traffic management system on Mumbai-Pune Expressway to curb accidents

The system will have 370 cameras and 17 types of traffic violations will be tracked by a private company. The firm will collect ₹555 per challan. The ₹340-crore contract for 10 years includes operational and capital costs and the company

Mumbai: The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) will implement a highway traffic management system (HTMS) on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway from August to reduce frequent accidents.

Pune, India -April 07, 2023 :On the Mumbai Pune Expressway, many times a picture of large vehicles parked on the side of the road can be seen, photo taken near Urse. in Pune, India, on Friday,April 07 , 2023.(HT PHOTO)

The system will have 370 cameras and 17 types of traffic violations will be tracked by a private company. The firm will collect ₹555 per challan.

Sanjay Yadav, joint managing director of MSRDC said, “We will have a control room at Kusgaon near Lonavala where traffic police personnel and highway patrol will monitor CCTV feed and certify an offence for a challan to be issued. Currently, there are barely any places where speed is monitored, only one or two vehicles with speed guns are deployed by the state transport department during the daytime.

The project will be done on a public private partnership basis. The MSRDC, which owns the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, has given the contract to MSI Protech Solutions. The ₹340-crore contract for 10 years includes operational and capital costs and the company.

Some of the offences that will be tackled are over-speeding, rash driving, lane cutting, wrong side driving, unnecessary stoppage, use of mobile phones while driving, non-usage of seat belts, non-usage of tail light reflector, fancy number plate and overloaded vehicle among others. Besides, four surveillance vans will be placed with cameras. Speed violations will be detected at 39 locations and lane violations will be detected at 34 locations.

The data will be accessed by the control room and each offence will be ratified by a police officer sitting in the control room and a challan will be issued.

Yadav said that 95% of the accidents on the expressway happen because of overspeeding. Last year, Maratha community leader Vinayak Mete lost his life when his SUV met with an accident while speeding on the expressway. The maximum speed limit for cars on the expressway is 100 kilometres per hour, yet some vehicles go up to 150 kmph.

From January to April this year, there were 74 accidents on the expressway, whereas 94 accidents were reported during the same period in 2022.

A top official of the home department said that while the MSRDC is appointing a private company for monitoring traffic offences on the expressway, the state home department is thinking of appointing a government-run IT firm for giving e-challans as the judiciary has expressed reservation on private firms in traffic monitoring.