The challenges were the ambitious timelines: Reshma Desai

Efkon India has provided integrated ITS solutions for the Yamuna Expressway. Reshma Desai, Director, Efkon India gives the details in this interview to TrafficInfraTech.

You have provided integrated ITS solutions to Yamuna Expressway. Please elaborate on the various subsystems and the challenges involved. Is this the first time you are doing such massive integration?

Jaypee group awarded Efkon India to provide a turnkey solution under the purview of Intelligent Transportation Systems. This includes Efkon Toll Management Systems integrated with WIM and Advanced Traffic Management System for Yamuna Expressway. The scope includes design, installation, commissioning, and maintenance solution for main toll plazas and ramps with a total of 139 lanes. The solution deployed is in many facets one of the most complex solutions executed in India. This integrates a world-class Toll management solution and Advanced Traffic Management solution, all centrally monitored at the Main Control Centre. Efkon’s hierarchical architecture across financial delivery channels allows multi-level communication via ramps, lanes, plazas and control centres.

Efkon’s Toll Management System provides a powerful lane engine with its associated sub-systems that facilitate a fraud-free transaction management allowing for a steady, accurate and traceable financial flow. The deployed sub-systems work independently within their control and harmoniously interface with the lane engine. The whole system is monitored by way of data driven controls and video tracking capabilities. This is in addition to separate monitoring utilities placed at the main control centre.

The Toll Management System encompasses various violation controls like WIM (Weigh in Motion) to detect overweight vehicles and speed enforcement engines. Automatic Number plate detectors facilitate faster and accurate processing of vehicular data and work in conjunction with Speed Enforcement engines. The system for the same can either be configured for a MLFF (Multi-lane free flow) or can work in a hybrid mode allowing for various methods of payment involving cash, smartcard and RFID tags.

The Jaypee team’s intention to introduce in India the most advanced Traffic Management System, at par with international standards, led to the idea of the ATMS solution that has been deployed by Efkon India at the Yamuna Expressway.

The solution was deployed with an objective to ensure road user safety with reduced and hassle-free travel time, aided by the comforts of a world class infrastructure. Over a stretch of 165kms, it becomes an absolute necessity to monitor incidents proactively and take pre-emptive actions. Also, reactive measures that can be taken should be quick using modern technologies so that the effects of unavoidable disasters are minimised. In this connection, ATMS system provided by Efkon continuously monitors the Expressway providing valuable feedback and information to the control centres to take suitable actions.

The entire stretch is covered in a grid of Emergency Call Boxes located every 2km on either side of the Expressway enabling road users to communicate with the control centre. The ergonomic map visualisation at the control centre enables the operators to locate the origin of the call. The CCTV cameras allow the operators to zoom in to the exact location of the incident in the respective range. Control centre software interfaces with the radio mobile devices to provide an effective vehicle tracking system. This further would help the authorities to send support vehicles to the incident-site in a timely manner.

Apart from the Emergency call boxes and CCTV cameras, VIDS (Video Incident Detection System) cameras are installed at crucial junctions across the expressway to detect important incidents like traffic congestion or fallen objects, etc. Variable Message Signs (VMS) located across the Expressway will help road users take appropriate decisions. While VIDS provides road-side condition information, MET provides environmental data to the control centre. Equipped with such multi-dimensional information, the authorities can filter and convey this to the road users by broadcasting it on Fixed or Mobile VMS.

The Expressway is further operationally divided into three sub-control centres for faster response to the support call. The YECC, control centre, and the equipment are all inter-connected over a Fibre Optic Cable. A single interface solution for all the sub-systems gives a cutting edge to this system whose integration enables information capture of all the Expressway activities. The interface is capable of designing and viewing filtered layouts on one of the largest video-walls of the country.

The challenges were the ambitious timelines set forth by Jaypee for implementation of the project of such magnitude. Most of the solutions implemented are being executed in India for the first time. As these solutions do not have precedence in India, our solution creates industry benchmark for quality and performance.

Toll and ATMS solutions deployed at Yamuna Expressway have been conceptualised, designed and implemented locally by Efkon India team. The propelling force for the project in totality was the passion and the commitment of the implementation, software, and support teams of Efkon India working on the Yamuna Expressway project.