Integrated Camera Surveillance at the Toll Plazas to Curb Traffic Congestion

1. Integrated Camera Surveillance at the Toll Plazas to Curb Traffic Congestion Globalisation and digitisation together have been two of the primary contributing factors to the economic growth of India. It has not just improved the standard of living but also encouraged people to invest more in purchasing cars and other forms of vehicles. Owing to the rapid increase in the purchase of cars, the vehicular density on the roads has simultaneously increased as well. This is the reason behind the heightened levels of traffic congestion on the roads, highways and the toll plazas. In order to deal with these rising issues concerning the overwhelming traffic congestion at the toll booths, the National Highways Authority of India has instilled a number of initiatives like that of Electronic Toll Collection, FASTag, NFC Toll payment systems and their latest endeavour being the installation of the video camera surveillance at the toll plazas. This initiative is currently in progress and will contribute to diminishing the traffic issues faced by the commuters during the toll tax payments. NHAI is planning on installing vehicular based closed-circuit television at the toll gates to watch over the traffic from a centralised monitoring system. This system will be programmed to click pictures of the toll gates every 30 minutes interval and send back the reports to the regional control centres and the headquarters of NHAI. The centralised data keeping of the ongoing traffic across the country is going to be real-time monitored 24x7 by the designated officials at the regional offices who would be responsible for administering necessary instructions if the traffic congestion prolongs. Not just the time frame snapshots, this centralised monitoring system is also programmed to convert to video mode if the traffic is standstill for over 30 minutes at the toll gates. The recorded videos will be displayed directly at the regional offices along with the NHAI headquarters compelling the authorities to take quicker actions of mitigation for the situation. All the regional offices along with the headquarters have been imbibed with high-speed internet connectivity so that there are no glitches or hindrances in the dissemination of the traffic information. With the ongoing progress of the project, NHAI is planning on implementing the project in phases. The first phase will encounter the installation of the camera surveillance system at 10 toll plazas across the country. The same is going to be extrapolated to 200+ toll plazas after the successful implementation of the first phase. NHAI is also in talks with the Korea Expressway Corporation (KEC) concerning leveraging the technology they use in their monitoring process. KEC integrates the latest audio-visual technologies for monitoring the traffic congestion which is what NHAI wants to integrate into their initiative. NHAI is currently roping in a bond with the Korea Expressway Corporation to share the expertise of the video-based IP camera. The simultaneous implementation of the video-based surveillance along with the FASTag technology is expected to make the traffic flow on the national highways smooth and effortless. The ongoing and upcoming initiatives are expected to add a multiplier effect in accordance to providing with a hinder-less travel experience to the highway users. #ElectronictollcollectionIndia #FASTag #Tollplazas