TrafficInfraTech Expo 2012 – Day 2: Highlights

Challenges in public bus operations

The highlight of the second day of TrafficInfraTech Expo 2012, being held at Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregoan, Mumbai, from May 17-19, 2012, was a seminar on “Challenges in making the operations of State Road Transport Undertakings efficient: Policy, Management & Technologies”. Chairing the seminar was O P Gupta, General Manager, Brihan Mumbai Electric Supply & Transport (BEST) Undertaking. The panelists were U Sudhakara Rao, Executive Director, Association of State Road Transport Undertakings (ASRTU); Manjunata Prasad, Managing Director, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC); K R Sreenivas, Managing Director, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), Karthi Madhavan, Regional Head, CMC Limited, a Tata Enterprise and Madan Pal Singh, Senior Research Officer, Planning Commission (Transport), Planning Commission, Government of India. O P Gupta said that a major area of concern for public transport and State Transport Undertakings (STUs) in the country was a burden due to the high amount of taxes such as motor vehicle tax, passenger tax and VAT on fuels. Management boards of STUs need to have experts with sound knowledge of public transport concepts and technical expertise to advise them. They also need to implement modern developments such as cashless transactions, contact-less cards and GPS systems which are now common with transit agencies all over the world. Gupta concluded the seminar by saying that it was time transport came to be considered a basic necessity such as food, clothing and shelter.

Products launched at the Expo

Dynamic trip planner was launched by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) at the Expo. The trip planner offers customised trip planning for Public Transport Systems. It has a GIS (Geographic Information System) database of bus route network & schedules, online GPS system and web interface for route and schedule modifications.

Highway Traffic Management System (HTMS) from Efkon India integrates sub-systems like Variable Message Signs, Video Incident Detection System, Weather Monitoring System, Speed Enforcement Systems, Automatic Traffic Control and Classification System, CCTV Monitoring System, Emergency Call Box System and Mobile Radio Communication into one communication/ information tool for the operations company.

Stalker Traffic Statistics Sensor from Stalker Radar Inc, USA, is a self-contained system to monitor and record traffic patterns on roadways in virtually any location and weather condition. The unit can operate in three survey collection modes — using the sensor’s internal memory with a typical capacity of up to seven days, using the external USB flash drive interface for an almost unlimited amount of data collection and using the sensor’s serial communication port to interface with external controllers to provide real time data analysis.

Ultra High Frequency Radio Frequency Identification System (UHF – RFID) is a new product offered by Base Systems Pvt Ltd. Manufactured by Rover RFID Technologies LLC, New York, it is an integrated reader which finds its use in important places from Parliament House to residential complexes. The reader is able to identify vehicles based on validity of their RF tags. Readers can be linked through controllers to manage the boom barriers.