Civic body installs devices worth Rs 42 lakh to study traffic patterns

In a pilot study, the civic administration has acquired two such machines from Australia for Rs 21 lakh each, and has stationed them this week with the technology at Haji Ali junction.

Additional Municipal Commissioner S V R Srinivas said, “The technology will help the BMC to plan more effective infrastructure. We can decide whether a subway, a two-way road or a skywalk is needed on a certain road depending on traffic movement on the road. The machine will give us the exact data of vehicle movement at a certain point in time on a road or junction. We can use the technology to study bottlenecks at various roads and junctions before planning to widen the roads.”

The civic traffic department added that the technology employed will also give details on the volume of traffic at a particular road, direction of traffic movement, distribution of traffic in terms of two-wheelers and three-wheelers, and movement of traffic in peak and non-peak hours.

How does it work?

One of the two devices acts as a transmitter, and the other as a receiver. The transmitting device placed on one side of the road emits infrared rays that are invisible to the naked eye, and are captured by the receiver placed on the other side of the road. The device must be placed 55 to 75 mm above the ground. “If a vehicle interrupts the rays, the device records it, and based on the thickness of the wheel, it also gives information on the type of vehicles passing a particular stretch,” said Additional Municipal Commissioner  S V R Srinivas.

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