Need for technologies that work

“We want technology to lessen police personnel on roads”

– P Prakash, Principal, Police Training College, Kerala Police

Have you been able to identify Traffic Solutions at the Expo?

I am representing Kerala Police department. Traffic is the main issue in Kerala. In Kerala, we have mostly urbanised and semi-urbanised places. It is managed either by City Commissioners and rural assistant police chiefs. It’s the major concern for us, so we are looking for solutions that can help us improve traffic control and may be lessen police personnel on roads.

We got ideas both from the Expo and the Seminar. We have issues of traffic signal synchronisation as these are installed by different vendors. Similarly, the State police department want to introduce e-challan system in the city. The police is looking for customised solutions.

I could meet a few systems providers also could address our concerns. We have invited some of them to visit the Kerala Police headquarters to present solutions for our issues. TrafficInfratech Expo gave us an opportunity to interact with solutions providers and officials. It was a platform to connect with these officials at the Expo.

How good is Thiruvanthapuram in terms of ITS?

We have a long way to meet the standards of other countries. We need proper roads, lighting, signages, road lines and even zebra-crossing.

The seminar session on ‘Way-side amenities developed on National Highways’ was very important. Many of the long highways stretches do not have necessary facilities. A lot of accidents happen especially at night because the drivers tend to sleep or doze off. So, such solutions are very much required.

The panelists at the Seminars discussed about how there is no pan- India traffic solutions. The solutions have to be customised for urban, semi-urban areas, based on the population and culture. The company should understand this to provide effective Traffic solutions. Also the challenge is that the technology keeps changing every two-years. We have funds to use the latest technology. We plan schemes both on State level as well as on Central level but then these technologies should be successfully implemented. When these projects are not successful, public as well as the government will view it very suspiciously.