Traffic solutions firms make a beeline to city

Traffic solutions firms make a beeline to city

Sharath S. Srivatsa and Anil Kumar Sastry

Cameras, GIS, GPS-based software tools being marketed

We won’t go by their claims: police

‘We know what Bangalore requires’

BANGALORE: Bangalore’s traffic woes have caught international attention of a different kind. Companies, institutions and individuals from western countries involved in the trade of traffic–transport solutions are making a beeline to the city to sell their ware, many of which do not address Bangalore’s needs and some even outdated.

In the recent months, representatives of several companies from abroad, especially from the United States and Europe, visited Bangalore, and, in turn, invited senior government officials to “seminars” and “discussions” on the products to convince them of their utility value.

Cameras, variable messaging systems, GIS and GPS-based software tools are among those being marketed.

“We are coming across at least one company every month selling either hardware or software related to traffic management.

“We have found that many of these traffic-transport management tools are as old as 30 years, and those that have become outdated in countries such as the U.S.,” a leading city-based traffic expert told The Hindu.

He said: “Many of these are software based, which will be of no help to those involved in traffic management. With the growth of IT companies in Bangalore, several solutions have been developed indigenously, which could be utilised instead of these imported ones.”

Though certain products were good, they could wait until basic infrastructure was developed. What the city required at present was good roads and signage, besides basic infrastructure, he said.

In one such event recently, a delegation from a well-known university that was in Bangalore on an invitation from a software company, organised a preview of its traffic management solutions to some of the top traffic experts and officials here.

The traffic expert said that cities such as Bangalore that had become popular as tech savvy could fall prey if discretion was not used while purchasing the products.
Survival tactics

“In times of recession, these foreign companies and institutions would be lurking around to sell their products for their survival as the demand for their products abroad have come down drastically,” he said.

Acknowledging that the traffic police have come across such persons/companies, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic & Security) Praveen Sood said: “Many individuals approach us with a number of software, claiming that they will solve the traffic problems in the city. However, we won’t go by their claims as we know what the city requires.”

Mr. Sood said: “The software, for optimum result, needs many conditions, including lane discipline, to be fulfilled. If there was lane discipline in the city, half the traffic woes would have automatically been solved and there was no requirement of software. Even when we buy certain things, for instance, closed circuit television cameras, we buy them from leading companies. We recently bought CCTV cameras manufactured by Bosch, the ones which are being used in Singapore.”