aught in traffic, many of us have regretted opting for a congested route. In such cases, alerts on the radio become more of a live commentary instead of a warning.
But, things may change soon as the Delhi Traffic Police plans to provide live video feed of traffic situations at important junctions in the city — an experiment that has been successful in many developed countries.
Starting with five junctions as a pilot project, the police would later place cameras and officers as ‘traffic scouts’ on 200 arterial roads for Delhiites to look at before they set out. What this means is that a commuter can just click at any point on the Delhi map and get live video feed of the traffic situation there.
Talking to The Hindu about the plan, Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi said that the cameras and personnel on these important junctions would monitor traffic situation there and keep the control room constantly informed.
“This is how a complete picture of the vehicular traffic will emerge. And this feedback can be seen in the shape of live camera footage on our website. Our effort will also be to indicate average road speed at these points. We intend to roll this out without camera feed in the first week of December. Later, cameras will be installed,” he said.
Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Muktesh Chander added that a mobile app would also be launched for smartphone users.
With this, Mr. Chander said, users can mark junctions as favourites and get alerts as well.
For instance, if someone is going from Moti Nagar to Gurgaon, a route that includes busy junctions such as Naraina and Dhaula Kuan, one can see before setting out the number of vehicles on the road and opt for an alternative route if needed.
The same can be done when one is already on the move and thus avoid a clogged junction.
Further, if there is any diversion on the route, or if the traffic is slow due to a pipeline leakage or a breakdown — information will be just a click away.
“If a commuter is regularly taking a corridor, which involves several such junctions, he can pick all these junctions and mark routes as favourites. So, instead of clicking one junction at a time, he or she can get the average road speed on the entire corridor,” said Mr. Chander.
He added that cameras for the purpose would be high resolution cameras capable of reading number plates. “We will also analyse the data gathered for our own traffic management system and observe the kind of vehicles that ply on a certain route at a given time period, besides monitoring volume of traffic,” said Mr. Chander.
