TrafficInfraTech Magazine Linking People Places & Progress
?The priority is making road systems safer?
? Oscar Fernendes
The Minister had an extensive tour of the Show. He interacted with many of the exhibitors and showed a keen interest in many of the traffic solutions on display. He observed, ?Integrating new technology and advanced traffic management systems is the need of the hour. The products on display at the TrafficInfraTech show demonstrate that new systems are very much available and it is for the various government agencies, infrastructure companies and traffic departments to incorporate the same to take advantage of the latest developments for providing safe and maintenance free roads. Our endeavour is to make road system safer in India by providing quality & pothole free roads and adequate roads signage to keep the drivers alert. The government is also taking wide-ranging steps to increase urban and rural connectivity and has already undertaken massive road construction projects to connect the smaller towns and cities with major highways.?
Answering questions from journalists and exhibitors, Fernandes continued, ?The different state governments are responsible for the maintenance of national highways in their states and the Central government provides the funds for this. There is a proposal for providing good toilets and night shelters as well as trauma care centres for truckers and drivers along the highways. The trauma care centres will take immediate care of accident victims, transport them to hospitals and bear `30,000 of the medical expenses. This will be done on a pilot basis in Rajasthan and Haryana. The Petroleum Ministry is in talks with MoRTH regarding this. Similarly, the Tourism Ministry is also in talks regarding other proposals. We are in discussion with the banking sector about building ATMs wherever there are night shelters.?
While visiting some of the toll automation booths, the Minister pointed out that today?s requirement is the facility for automatic number plate recognition at toll booths that allows the vehicles which have already paid toll to pass freely without stopping. There is also a need for automated weighing systems to avoid delay.
K. Mohan, Deputy General Manager (Bus Programme), Ashok Leyland found the Show to be extremely useful because of the exciting and latest products on the one hand and because of the high quality of the seminars on the other hand. ?The seminar on BRTS development was really an eye-opener for me. I got a lot of information from CEPT?s Prof. Shivananda Swamy?s presentation wherein he shared significant developments that have happened on the BRTS front. I found the Show as such very comprehensive, covering all aspects of the traffic industry ? infrastructure, traffic management, road safety, pedestrians and so on. For example, one product on display has been the pedestrian crossing device that could be very useful in high traffic flow areas. Another product I saw was the traffic based signal system. This is very important in India because today vehicles are wasting around 35% of fuel at traffic junctions, plus their valuable time too. These kinds of products will really help in scientific planning of traffic.?
Exhibitors appreciated the fact that the Show had quality visitors who were very focussed and important to their business and the fact that the Show helped them meet many potential business partners. They also appreciated important government dignitaries and officials from the traffic industry visiting the Show.
R Venkateshan, Interim Manager, Magnetic Auto Control said, ?This is the third time we are participating in the Show and we got a good response here. We had very good quality visitors, in fact, far superior to the other shows that I have been to. Our interaction with the many government authorities was also very good. I was pleasantly surprised with the good knowledge level and awareness of some of the government authorities, for example the Union Minister Oscar Fernandes. This is a welcome sign because it gives opportunities and encourages companies like us to bring in new technologies into India. You could possibly promote TrafficInfraTech Expo on a larger scale to get more visitors. You could do some small road shows across multiple locations in the country and a one day event just two weeks prior to the show in major cities.?
Ricky D?Souza, Regional Sales Manager (Traffic Safety), Laser Technologies, USA was very happy to participate for the second time, having benefitted immensely from the last event. ?We have had a very good response from participating in TrafficInfraTech Expo. Last year, thanks to the Show in Mumbai, we sold some of our products to the Indian Air Force. We have a range of laser speed enforcement products beginning with the smallest true speed laser. Saving lives is our motto. So we would like all states in India to use these speed laser radar products to help reduce accidents and save lives.?
Peter Whyte from Germany based Jenoptik Robot felt the Show offered his company crucial insights into the Indian market. ?Jenoptik produces radar enforcement products for speed enforcement using radar and laser technology, both for speed and mobile applications as well as point-to-point or section control speed. We came to TrafficInfraTech Expo to look for potential partners in India and to have a better idea of this very promising emerging Indian market that we would like to be a part of. I think we have achieved that objective; we have got an idea of the market and met many potential partners and distributors. We also became aware of many large projects of the sort that we are interested in.?
Sanjeev Varmali, Sales Manager, Dantal Hydraulics was happy that the government officials visited his booth. ?We provide hydraulic multi-level car parking systems of various kinds such as single post and multi post dependent parking systems using electro hydraulics based technology and other automated parking systems. Minister Oscar Fernandes was quite keen to see our car parking products. He has promised to visit our factory too. Our parking system offers saving in power during its operation because it does not consume power when the parking platform is lowered down. With many municipal corporations making it increasingly mandatory for buildings to have car parking equipment, the mindset of the people is becoming more favourable towards automated parking and the sector has good potential.?
Nitin Munot, Managing Director, Technocrats Security Systems Pvt Ltd, felt that the highlight of the Show was the awaren
ess of the company?s products that it was able to create among his target customers and the extremely informative and educative seminars, ?We have launched production of new noise barriers with German collaboration in India. We got some good, focussed visitors to our stall and expect to do some good business this year. Many visitors did not know what a sound barrier was and were seeing its working for the first time. Many visitors were from the construction, highways and toll industries who said they could use the barriers in their future projects. The CEO of Bhopal BRTS was very impressed with the noise barrier.?
Sandeep Pawar, CEO, Kent ITS Pvt Ltd was happy the Show offered his customers the opportunity to actually meet his clients, whereas earlier they had only heard about Kent ITS. ?We are basically into toll management, highway management and parking management systems and have a unique product called Toll ERP. Our products are customised to Indian conditions. We participated for the first time in the Show and it has been good. This is a good platform to showcase our capabilities and what we can do for the Indian market. I was able to meet my existing customers as well as potential customers too.?
