Challenges
The ITS market is nascent in India. Even though most of the technologies have been successfully implemented in developed nations, there are major challenges in implementing such state-of-the-art technologies in India, as listed below:
- Integration of the ITS applications and introduction of standards or the framework for an international ITS architecture, and likely to face similar compatibility and inter-operability problems to the situation faced by the railway.
- Lack of definite guidelines and regulations and difficulties in physical implementation and developing a nation-wide ITS data archive.
- India’s ITS can’t be entirely modelled on the existing successful ITS of other nations due to basic cultural, geographic & practical differences among the countries. Keeping India’s urban context in mind, ITS systems have to be designed such that it benefits all users including pedestrians, non-motorised transport and three-wheelers.
- High cost for ITS safety systems does not allow high penetration. Few people are willing to pay extra for safety systems and only few technologies are sufficient to ensure safety.
- Setting up a citywide ITS implementations with fully functional Traffic Management Centres for coordination of traffic activities (IIT Chennai Report, 2010)
Policy and Regulatory Framework
There are numerous acts that encompass the various modes of transport and regulate transport in India. These include the Motor Vehicles Act (1988), National Highways Act (1995), Major Ports Trust Act (1963), Railway Act (1989)and more As mentioned earlier, ITS is a relatively new area of work in India, therefore no specific statutes have been enacted for the use of ITS in India.
However, the Government of India and several State governments have been taking several initiatives to encourage and popularise the use of ITS in Indian transport sectors. The GoI has instituted the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) that lays out the vision for making the cities of India liveable and ensures safe, affordable, quick, reliable and sustainable access for the growing number of city residents to jobs, education, recreation and such other needs within the Indian cities.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has started the National Road Transport Policy (NRTP) to promote road infrastructure support, public transport and quality and productivity of goods transportation and infrastructure. NRTP underlines the importance of ITS in the road and highway infrastructure including technologies in real time traffic flow management, parking availability, vehicular traffic, and a basic geographic information system (GIS). In addition, the NRTP also discusses the use of ITS technologies in transport systems in freight and cargo transport, like electronic tagging and automatic toll collection and can greatly reduce waiting/transit times and lead to increased emissions and fuel consumption. The NRTP states that the Government will promote R&D in the use of “Intelligent Transport System for addressing the problems of transport sector,” the use of modern technology in construction and maintenance of road infrastructure as well as for rolling stock” as well as “making vehicle registration Information Technology (IT) based and creating a centralized registry/depository of all information on motorized vehicles”.