TrafficInfraTech Expo 2012 Successful Eventful Bountiful

VISITORS’ VIEWS

Visitors at TrafficInfraTech Expo too wrote a happy tale on the canvas of satisfaction.

Vikas Kasliwal, Vice-President & COO, Shree Ram Urban Infrastructure: “This is the first time I am visiting the show. I did not realise such a show exists. We are putting up a big residential complex, a 300m high building in Worli, Mumbai. We have a big parking lot next to it where we expect about 3000 cars to be parked. So we were looking for some solutions. We work a lot with traffic consultants too. I found some interesting solutions here which can also be used in fire alarm systems and other safety systems.”

Abhijeet Vaidya, General Manager – Procurement, Reliance Infrastructure Limited: “This is much better than the InterTraffic Show held in Delhi some time back. The Show is very well organised, neat and clean. What we mainly look for at Shows like these are new technologies or initiatives by companies which we can see all at one place, instead of searching all over the place. This is very good – a one-shop solution for us.”

Uday Bhatia, Head – Sales and Marketing, Intelligent Transport Solutions Pvt Ltd: “These kind of shows are very important because you become aware of the new developments in the market, what is happening around the globe and also about new technologies. Like I met Roger Enqvist from Sweden who showed his acoustic signal box which was very interesting though it may take some time to catch up in India. The seminar and panel discussions were really nice, much better than the ones organised at other Shows. The panel members were quite reputed in their fields and people know about them. Many of the exhibitors of course are the same at most of the traffic shows I have attended. But here when I talked to many of the exhibitors, and I know many of them for the last one and a half years, they said that the response here has been better than they had at other shows. The seminar was very interesting because of the quality of the panel members which could be seen from the presence of Joint Commissioner of Police – Traffic, Delhi and Additional DGP, Karnataka and other places, even though I may not agree with all that they said. I really liked the Expo, it is very well managed.”

Harshad Abhyankar, Member – Board of Directors, Save Pune Traffic Movement, NGO: “I found nothing missing in the show. Our NGO works in Pune and we have several activities being planned both with traffic police and also with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and traffic department. So, we are looking out for some new activities or new infrastructure and hence, at some software solution or some technology solution which will help us in modernising the traffic system in Pune. We are looking out for various kinds of vehicle tracking system as well as safety devices and stuff like that and I have come across some software vendors over here who have implemented systems like we are planning. We began discussions with them for our requirement. I have come across some people from Pune both – in the form of visitors and exhibitors. I also saw another company, KPIT which is doing some traffic projects, and has come here for some software solutions. My experience with the show is good and I didn’t find any point where I could say – ‘why don’t you put this also?’ I think everything I wanted to see is here under one roof and that is what makes it useful and interesting.”

Prasad from Jharkhand Traffic Police: “This is my first time at the show. It is a very good traffic trade fair. I have collected all the brochures and related materials and have given our details like email address for further communication to the exhibitors. I think Jharkhand is definitely going to purchase many things from this show. Actually I had come here looking for equipment in speed traffic sensors and got information on it. But then, two more things caught my attention – one is sensor for alcohol driving and the other is Speed Gun. I hope we will be able to purchase it. I also attended the seminar and it was very good. The panel members were all very experienced and it was good listening to them.”

P C Prajapati from NYTIL, New York: “I have worked in India for twenty years and worked twenty years outside as well. I am a Chief Engineer in textiles and I have worked in oil industry. As far as the traffic is concerned, we cannot wash even the floors in the hotel industries without the signboards as all our customers are from European countries. Even if the road in wild life lodging (like from the lounge to the lunch area) is uneven or rocky, we have to paint it so there won’t be any accident. So in hotel industries we mainly use these things like sign boards and signals as our customers are very-very particular. We are not allowed to over speed in the national parks lest an animal gets killed. Officials use camera devices to measure speed. Here, I saw in a stall the new technology through which they put two sensors on the road. These pick up the speed and send to server which will send the data on the internet. I also saw at a stall the Public Information System that can be used in the trains to inform about next stations, etc. They are supplying the complete signboard along with the software solution to the railways. I like this Expo as it gives me information on what all is entering India in the traffic scene.”

U Sudhakara Rao, Executive Director, Association of State Road Transport Undertakings: “Congratulations, wonderfully organised and conducted.”

Pawan Palle, General Manager (Projects – Toll) of Ramky Infrastructure Ltd: “I visited the Expo to see all the products that are available in the market. It is good to see so many products from different companies here. For us, the 1st project that will be tolled on BOT basis is the 123km long Sagar-Ettawah project which will have two toll plazas, one near Agra and other near Etawah. So it will be about 10 toll plazas at each end. We will be having ETC and normal tolling also for this project. For this project one of the vendors with whom we may work is Rajdeep Infotech – for providing system and hardware for the toll management system. Expos like these are very useful for companies like us since they bring so many vendors under one roof, where we can interact with them easily and examine their various solutions.”

Rizwan Ahmed Special Director General of Police – Traffic, Lucknow, UP: “I congratulate the show organisers for organising such an informative show and for bringing such a powerful panel onto one stage.”

Mahendra Kumar Jain, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Traffic, Indore: “I am happy and impressed with the manner in which the show is organised and the arrangements are made for outstation delegates. Attending the show, viewing the presentations and hearing the panel discussions were worth all the effort. I congratulate the show organisers for bringing together such learned and important people who represent the different areas of traffic – managers, policy makers, service providers and road construction companies.”

Akhilesh Gupta, Regional Sales Manager Bhartiya Global Infomedia Ltd: “The exhibition has brought all the stakeholders of the industry together.”

Ninad Jaguste from Ninad Jaguste Architects: “I could network with institutions which specialise in road planning and surveys like CRRI.”

Surbhi Lohia, Larsen and Toubro: “The Expo offered details and updates on aspects of road designing, safety and technologies to determine vehicle count.”

The highlight of the Expo was the Seminars held on each day of the Expo which had senior experts from various government and private bodies share their views on important topics. The first day’s seminar, “Traffic Management and Safety during Highway Construction” was inaugurated by Dr Sudhir Krishna and chaired by P L Bongirwar.

The second day’s seminar on “Challenges in making the operations of State Road Transport Undertakings efficient: Policy, Management & Technologies” was chaired by O P Gupta, General Manager, Brihan Mumbai Electric Supply & Transport (BEST) Undertaking. U Sudhakara Rao, Executive Director, Association of State Road Transport Undertakings (ASRTU); Madan Pal Singh, Senior Research Officer (Transport), Planning Commission, Government of India; Manjunata Prasad, Managing Director, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC); K R Sreenivas, Managing Director, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) and Karthi Madhavan, Business Unit Head & General Manager, CMC Limited, a Tata Enterprise spoke at the seminar.

The third day’s seminar on “The need for, challenges in and advantages of achieving Unified ITS Solutions for Highway & Urban Traffic in India” was chaired by Sanjeev Kumar Lohia, OSD (Urban Transport) & Ex-Officio Joint Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India. Vivek Phansalkar, Joint Commissioner of Police -Traffic, Mumbai; Rish Malhotra, Director, International Road Dynamics Inc.; Ravi Kumar, Joint Director, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC); Dr Vishwanath, Former Director (Engineering Services and Projects), Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and Dr CSRK Prasad, Professor & Head, Transportation Division, Department of Civil Engineering, NIT, Warangal were the panelists.

The discussions on all the three days brought forth many compelling points and their solutions which TrafficInfraTech will compile and place before both the Ministries represented at the Expo. (We bring to you the discussions held at the first seminar in this issue. The discussions of the second and the third seminars will be carried in the next issue of TrafficInfraTech).

The industry is now awaiting the next TrafficInfraTech Expo scheduled to be held in New Delhi in December 2013. And VIS just might have a bag of surprises for the exhibitors and visitors.