The much-awaited Intelligent Traffic Signal (ITS) is proving to be too expensive for Delhi Traffic Police to be installed in the city. The ambitious plan, conceived as a Commonwealth Games project, has been put on hold indefinitely due to paucity of funds. Sources said the project requires over Rs 300 crore and it is primarily due to the monetary constraint that police are yet to find a contactor to execute the project.
“Due to fund crunch, the ITS is getting delayed. The ITS could be a viable solution to the traffic woes in the Capital. Although we have started upgrading signals in various areas, this process will take time to complete,” said Anil Shukla, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic).
In the first phase of ITS, Delhi Traffic Police had planned to connect 302 signals on 87 corridors spread over 210-km of road network in the city. In the subsequent phases, the scheme broadly took into account a road length of about 30,000-km, around 500 signalised intersections as well as intersections which were not signalised then. The plan was to replace the signal technology at these intersections to reduce congestion on stretches and track the movement of vehicles through a centralised control room.
Contrary to signals where fixed timeframes are preset for change of signals, the intelligent signals take a volume count of the number of vehicles at an intersection and automatically adjust the available time for green signal on the basis of changing traffic demand. An area comprised of a group of traffic signals is selected where vehicle detectors are put up on all approach lanes to each intersection. The detectors assess the volume of traffic waiting at an intersection and also the number of vehicles headed towards it. The data is sent to a central server, a master computer, which in turn is connected to the signal controllers or the brains of each of the traffic signals. The central computer uses electronic signals to instruct the intelligent signal controllers to switch on green light on the side with the heaviest stream of traffic. In addition, the ITS is also equipped with high tech speed cameras to keep a watch on traffic violations at intersections.
However, due to the technology required and the money constraint, not many players have expressed interest in the project. Considering it was a big project, the Traffic Police had also tweaked the terms and conditions of the project to attract bidders, but it was an exercise in futility.