Traffic panel looks into the future

Traffic panel looks into the future

M. Raghuram

Discusses traffic control and management system developed by C-DAC


BANGALORE: A traffic police panel in Bangalore, headed by Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) K.C. Ramamurthy, on Friday discussed a new traffic control and management system developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).

The presentation on Composite Signal Control Strategy (CoSiCoSt) was made by the Control and Instrumentation Group of C-DAC headed by C-DAC Assistant Directors Muralidharan and Ravikumar. The police panel was aided by traffic expert C.E.G. Justo and others. The meeting was attended by Police Commissioner N. Achuta Rao.

CoSiCoSt has been introduced in Pune, Jaipur and Shillong. The new system was indigenously designed and produced, which makes it the first total traffic control and management system made by an Indian company with Indian software support.

According to Mr. Ravikumar, CoSiCoSt has four different modes of traffic control: fixed mode, vehicle-actuated traffic control, fully automatic traffic control and vehicle actuated control with fixed cycle time.

Citing the case of Pune, Mr. Ravikumar said after CoSiCoSt was introduced, traffic density was equally distributed and the average speed of vehicles had increased.

The system could be easily upgraded to accommodate newer technologies, such as the Intelligent Traffic System (ITS), which was being developed by C-DAC in association with the Indian Institutes of Technology, Bombay and Delhi.

CoSiCoSt has a GPS-enabled ‘logical corridor’ function, which allows for synchronisation of traffic signals. A centralised server and monitoring system enables the police to monitor the volume and speed of traffic. In case of emergencies or traffic congestion it allows the police to open up new corridors using peripheral roads around areas affected by traffic snarls.
Cheaper option

Prof. Justo said the indigenous technology was easier to maintain and calibrate while imported technology was expensive in terms of the annual maintenance contract and spare parts. But there were many more aspects to be considered as the volume and nature of traffic in Bangalore were different from those cities in which the system had been introduced.