To ease traffic woes, cabinet approves 891 crore ‘intelligent traffic management system’ for Mumbai
The project will help in smart signalling, identifying licence number plates, over-speeding vehicles, illegal parking and tracing stolen vehicles (Representational Image, Courtesy: Sunil Ghate)
In welcome news for motorists, the Maharashtra Cabinet on Tuesday approved Rs 891 crore to implement the intelligent traffic management system (ITMS) project to streamline vehicular movement in Mumbai.
According to a statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office, Mumbai’s population is around 1.30 crore and its surface area is 438 square km.
There are around 34 lakh vehicles in Mumbai, with 261 out of 1000 persons in the city owning a vehicle.
“To address issues of time consumed while travelling, money spent on fuel due to vehicle population and traffic jams in Mumbai and its subsequent effect on productivity, there is need for a modern traffic management system,” the statement said.
“Mumbai has around 2000-kilometre road network…the ITMS project will be implemented on these roads and also the city’s bridges, flyovers,” it added.
The system can help adjust signal time slot based on vehicular traffic on a road and its length, the statement said.
The project will help in smart signalling, identifying licence number plates, control over-speeding vehicles and illegal parking, trace stolen vehicles and recovery of penalty.
It reportedly entails the installation of 4,705 smart traffic signals; 300 red light violation detection cameras; 925 automatic number plate recognition cameras and 300 cameras to identify vehicles going the wrong way and 300 cameras to detect illegal parking.
The project is expected to be completed within two years of awarding of the contract.
Earlier this year, independent location technology specialist TomTom pegged Mumbai as the most traffic-congested city in the world in its ‘Traffic Index-2018’ report, in which it analysed traffic congestion in 403 cities across six continents.
The finding is also in line with data from state transport departments, which deemed Mumbai as the most car-congested city in the country on the basis of total registered vehicles.
