A highway advisory system (HAS) pilot project has been launched on the Delhi-Jaipur highway (NH8) by the Centre as a part of its efforts to improve safety and ease of commute on the highways. It was launched by minister of road transport, Nitin Gadkari, and has been done in assistance with the World Bank.
This project involves collection of real time highway information from shops/hotel, patrol vehicles, toll plazas and traffic marshals. This content includes traffic alerts, weather information as well as amenities.
This information will be transmitted to HAS control centre using mobile applications, telephones and sensors. The centre will collect data, process and analyse it. They will then generate alerts and send it to be broadcast by All India Radio. Information and alerts will be broadcast over AIR’s Delhi, Alwar and Jaipur FM stations. 22 bulletins will be issued every day including safety awareness content along with live traffic updates on NH8.
It will be conducted in three phases with this being the first phase. In the second phase, the entire highway will be covered while in phase 3 the system is expected to move to a complete digital system.
Speaking on the occasion Gadkari said that the government is committed to reducing fatalities due to road accidents by 50 per cent. HAS is an aid that will help to achieve this target. By giving information about traffic conditions on the highway, accidents, weather and meteorological information and information on highway amenities, the system will help to reduce road accidents and also fatality resulting from these accidents, and make travel faster and more convenient.
