Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has embarked upon a pilot project in the western parts of the city comprising Madhapur, Kukatapally, Hitech City, Gachibowli and surrounding areas to use technology for assessment of road quality.
The corporation has partnered with Roadbounce, a vibration-based road roughness measurement technology developed from T-Hub, which would highlight poor quality roads with a focus of the patches which have poor condition and high demand.
So far, the assessment of road damage is being done by engineers on their field visits, and accordance of priority based on their urgency has been arbitrary.
Sensors
The technology uses sensors mounted on the dashboard and the bottom of a vehicle to record the bumpiness of the road due to potholes and raised manholes.
This data will be compared against the complaints received through MyGHMC app over the last six months and the information given by the traffic police on the bad patches and accidents, to arrive at the quality of the roads. The worst patches will be addressed first.
West Zone Commissioner D. Hari Chandana has informed that the study has been done in the past two days on 90 kilometres of major stretches in the West Zone.
Innovative solution
“The data will be triangulated with the complaints and traffic data during the next two to three days to determine the quality of roads. If it is successful, the project will be replicated in other parts,” she said.
The pilot is part of the Smart Streets Lab, a platform jointly organised by Government of Telangana and WRI India. The aim of Smart Streets Lab is to pilot innovative road safety solutions to transform India’s streets.
Priority
GHMC has, through another press statement, informed that close to eight lakh square metres of road space has been badly damaged in the city due to the continual rains over the past fortnight. A total of 1846 bad patches have been identified, and road repairs will be taken up on priority once the rains relent.
Commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy has reviewed the condition of roads with the Engineering department officials and issued instructions for repairs in time-bound manner.
