Major monitoring upgrade at 100 key traffic junctions

The city traffic department has decided to upgrade 100 traffic junctions on Poonamalee High Road, from Muthusamy bridge to Koyambedu crossing, by installing high resolution CCTV cameras and vehicle registration number plate readers in the first phase. 

The move is aimed at making traffic run smoothly in the area. The works, which is scheduled to begin in three months, will be carried out under the smart city project and is being funded by Japan International Co-operational agency, JICA which is committed to setting up an intelligent transport system in Chennai metropolitan area and its periphery.

This will technically bring back all most of the parameters of a project planned in the year 2012 and later scrapped half-way through by the police department (details in box) as they did not find the works satisfactory. Before kick starting the project, the Chennai police plan to increase the number of traffic signal points from the current 383 to 403 in a few months. 

As per a report, the funding agency is aware of the shortcomings of the city such as: poor condition of roads despite fast paced urbanisation, flooding, absence of footpaths, out-of-order traffic signals, fewer number of lanes because of Metro Rail construction, deteriorated pavements and drains, along with on-road parking woes. 

“The new system will make it easier to create green corridors for ambulances. It will also have a system using which the arrival of GPS-enabled MTC buses at bus stops along the stretch of the road can be monitored,” a traffic official said. The new system also stresses on the need for cameras at traffic signals which will be able to capture number plate data real time. 

“But, for that we also need number plates to be standardised,” the official added. A study conducted by JICA, proposed setting up of new centres for the selected ITS components, i.e. Chennai traffic information centre, traffic control centre for Chennai Peripheral Ring Road, and command control centre for City Bus. 

The study also stressed on the need to address cross-cutting issues for sustainable and proper operation, maintenance, planning and upgrading, and accordingly involvement and coordination of the related agencies. 

The measures that will be put into place in the first phase of the project include: automatic traffic counter cum classifier system, CCTV traffic monitoring system, flood measurement and warning system and system of information provision through the internet. All this will be carried out under the Chennai traffic information centre project.  

Regarding the operation of MTC buses, the study suggested setting up a command control centre for buses along with bus monitoring system, passenger information system, electronic ticket management system.

In 2012, a city-based private firm was roped in to create an integrated traffic management system (ITMS) which can monitor traffic violations better and book offenders. The system, that included CCTV cameras, was taken up in RK Salai and Kamarajar Salai. Chennai-based Purple Infotech Limited signed an agreement with the home department to install the ITMS. Once the system was installed, the traffic police expected the collection of fines from traffic violations to go up from Rs 12 crore to at least Rs 60 crore a year. And a control room was also set up in the 7th floor of the city police commissioner office. The project was to be implemented at 100 junctions across the city and was awarded for Rs117 crore. It was, however, scrapped half way through unceremoniously.

ATCC is high-speed traffic data collection system which provides a low cost means of recording vehicle classification without interrupting traffic flow. In the standard configuration, one inductive loop and two electric sensors are installed in the highway per lane of data collection. ATCC is compatible with many modes of data collection and is flexible enough to run with a variety of different equipment like CCTV cameras, variable message signs (VMS), modems etc. The system is accompanied with user friendly software which can collect data like speed, length, axle spacing, headway, number of axles, time and date etc.