Guwahati, Aug 5: Guwahati police commissioner Harmeet Singh on Thursday clarified that the integrated traffic management system (ITMS) rolled out in the city a couple of days back was “very much in place” with the software calibration process currently underway.
Addressing mediapersons here, Singh, while countering reports in a section of the media that the “ITMS has come to a halt a day after it was rolled out”, said that the penalty for traffic rule violations (based on the system) was yet to be effected as the software calibration process was underway, and would take about five to six days following which e-challans would be issued.”
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had launched the first phase of ITMS here on Tuesday.
The state-of-the-art citizen-friendly, integrated and responsive traffic surveillance and control mechanism is being implemented by the Guwahati Smart City Limited (GSCL) for checking traffic violations and facilitating seamless traffic movement in Guwahati.
Saying that the system will be dynamic with changes made to the signal timings from time to time, depending on occasions such as festivals or events or even weather conditions, the city police commissioner further appealed to commuters for cooperation with the authorities for maintenance of smooth traffic.
“I appeal to the commuters to stick to traffic rules such as lane driving and single lane parking. Besides, pedestrians too have the right to use roads and hence I appeal to vehicle commuters to stop their cars before zebra crossing to allow safe passage to pedestrians,” he said.
Warning that the traffic violations are being recorded and that action would be taken against violators in due course, Singh said the traffic police would launch a strict parking enforcement drive from next week.
“Besides city buses flouting rules will be heavily penalised and driving licenses will be seized as well. Business establishments too have to ensure that there is no unauthorised parking (parallel parking) of vehicles in front of their establishments to avoid traffic jams on the road. Else they will face action as well,” he said, while appealing to commuters to make use of the designated parking lots to park their vehicles.
He further sought suggestions in regard to the time that is to be set for different traffic points, which encounter heavy traffic during peak hours.
Equipped with cameras at major junctions of the city, the ITMS will cover 20 junctions (on GS Road) from Nepali Mandir to Khanapara in the first phase, 30 junctions in the second phase and 44 junctions located in the periphery during the third phase.
The project will facilitate live monitoring and control of traffic signals through implementation of ATCS (Adaptive Traffic Control System), live monitoring of vehicles passing through important locations through CCTV surveillance, live alerts in case of an event or incident through video analytics, identify, apprehend and prosecute offenders through video analytics and e-challan and monitoring of suspicious activity, vehicles, objects etc.
The ITMS will also ensure improved responsiveness through access to police by the citizens for quick and effective response, improved visibility and transparency through intelligent dashboards and help emergency services and faster turn-around time by providing green corridors.
