Hyderabad installs ITS on outer ring road

Right: Japanese support is helping the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Agency to establish modern ITS systems right around the city's 158km outer ring road

The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is working with the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Agency to implement ITS equipment throughout the 158km (98 miles), eight-lane, access controlled outer ring road expressway currently under construction around the Indian city.

HMDA’s metropolitan commissioner KS Jawahar Reddy says that the ITS system will include emergency phones, mobile communications, variable message signs, weather sensors and automatic traffic counters and classifiers. The equipment is designed to smooth the flow of traffic on the expressway, where work on more than half the route (86.6km), comprising Phase-I and Phase-IIA, is already underway.

Emergency call boxes (ECBs) will be installed at 2km (1.2 miles) intervals on each side of the expressway, connected by optical fiber cable to a traffic control center (TCC), which will be able to transfer calls to appropriate organizations such as the police, fire stations, ambulances and repair services, and will record the communication.

The TCC will control and manages all the ITS services, collecting and analysing traffic flows on the outer ring road using CCTV traffic cameras established at critical locations, such as near interchanges.

A mobile communication system is planned to support reliable and speedy communication with ambulances, cranes and police patrol vehicles.

Variable message signs installed before major intersections will provide road users with warnings of problems ahead. The messages will be controlled by staff at the TCC.

Weather systems gather data about temperature, wind direction and speed, humidity and visibility to improve road management and enable the TCC staff to warn of adverse conditions.

Automatic traffic counters and classifiers will help TCC officials to monitor traffic density, speed and types of vehicles.

In addition to the ITS system, the expressway will feature three forms of tolling: electronic toll collection system, which enables vehicles to pay without stopping; smart-card-based touch-and-go payments; and manual toll payment at a toll booth.
 

23 February 2009