Interviews

Prof Rajat Moona, with a B Tech degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur and a PhD in Computer Science & Automation from IISc Bangalore, is the recipient of IIT Kanpur’s prestigious If you think that the much needed Smart Cards for driving licences and tracking road offences cannot become a reality in India, then we must tell you that this technology has already been developed by IIT Kanpur in 2001 itself. It is on this very technology that the Ministry for Road Transport and Highways’ much hyped ‘Vahan Sarathi’ programme is based. And if you want to know if such a Smart Card can tell about offences committed in other states and is operable pan India, then ask Rajat Moona, the Director General of C-DAC, Pune. As Vidyottama Sharma did. The answer: Yes, it can tell you of offences committed in other States. He should know, for his former team at IIT Kanpur is the brain behind this technology that is operable throughout the country. Which leads us to the next most important question: Then, what are we waiting for?

With 33,800 workers and 7,000 buses carrying 2.5 million passengers daily and covering 25 lakh kms a day, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is one of the most profitable state transport undertakings in India today. Thanks to its Managing Director Gaurav Gupta’s pro-people approach and effort to leverage technology in achieving high deliverables, KSRTC has been termed as a trendsetter in the logistics of transporting people. The company has been making profits in the last few years – its last turnover was of र2000 crore. During the year 2010-11, it recorded the highest ever profit of र62 crore, thus wiping out the accumulated losses and making an accumulated profit of र43.75 crore in books. KSRTC is the first transport corporation in the country to have a Global Positioning System, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) based passenger information and ITS system fitted in its vehicles. With its excellent track record in profitability, fuel efficiency and operational efficiency, it has achieved a position where other states look up to KSRTC for following its expertise in various fields. In an extended conversation with Mangala Chandran, Gupta unveiled his plans for making the success of KSRTC a global benchmark in Sustainable Transport.

Traffic management in Delhi is not an easy task. While the Traffic Police is trying to bring in new technology, the commercial vehicle owners are busy trying to find loopholes in the system and the general commuter refuses to follow lane discipline. Trying to infuse sense in this chaos is Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Satyendra Garg.

An ambitious road sector project of the Republic of Cape Verde has got a second shot of additional financing by the World Bank to the tune of US$10 million equivalent. The project, called the Road Sector Support Project (RSSP), with a maturity period of 35 years and a grace period of 10 years, aims to increase the mobility of the ...

Bhopal is on the move. Integrated centres and traffic junctions to provide real-time information & help in effective traffic management and integrated security systems & communication systems aided by GPRS/GSM and wireless networks are giving the policeman on the road a new identity. Purushottam Sharma, Inspector General of Police (SCRB), Bhopal has now proposed the use of e-challans integrated with camera, smart card and credit card readers and the traffic control rooms, to help in booking the traffic offenders on the spot.

Ganapati Visarjan this year went without a traffic hiccup in Mumbai under his supervision. And now with emphasis on new technology, stationing women cops at traffic signals, organising driving lessons and workshops for errant drivers, and kickstarting an initative of levying fine with a smile, Mumbai’s new Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Vivek Phansalkar seems to be a man in ...

Early 2008, on testing positive for drunk driving at Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai, an investment banker threw notes worth Rs 2000 on the traffic constable who had apprehended him. Harish Baijal, the then Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic), was so miffed with the audacity of the Honda Accord owner that he personally argued the case in court resulting in the ...