The Chennai city police are planning to improve traffic management by installing more smart poles, which are integrated to a command centre, and are eliciting the opinions of police personnel on the field, according to Commissioner of Police Shankar Jiwal.
Smart poles have been installed in about 50 locations by the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC). “We plan to expand the scope of traffic management through smart poles. These cloud-based poles will be able to monitor the status of traffic in an area and relay the status to nearby police officers as well as the control room. The proposed new Command and Control Centre will have a state-of-the-art data centre and analytical capability, apart from manual interface through wall screens,” Mr. Jiwal told The Hindu .
The Smart City project is being implemented by the GCC and other departments at a cost of ₹900 crore. The project has a component for traffic information and management, which includes smart poles.
The poles will have advanced cameras, and will give inputs on a real-time basis to the proposed Command and Control Centre.
Meanwhile, an Intelligent Traffic Management System, introduced recently on a pilot basis at five junctions in Anna Nagar and Thirumangalam, has been successful. The pilot project has been generating around 20,000 challans a day. In the next phase, a similar system has been proposed at 50 more places in the city.
In addition, 24 check-points exclusively managed by traffic police personnel have been set up, with a focus on creating deterrence against driving without helmets and driving under the influence of liquor.
Acknowledging that the improvement in traffic management had been a “top-bottom approach”, Mr. Jiwal said, “It is being reversed, and suggestions have been sought from traffic police personnel on the streets on how to improve at least one stretch in the jurisdiction of a traffic inspector per month.”
“The city police expect to reap good dividends from these exercises. The comfort of men while on duty is an important factor for them to perform satisfactorily. This is being taken care of by providing them sufficient rest and nutritional supplements once every shift,” he said.
