Signal free corridor to transport organs for transplant

August 7, 2014

The traffic police of Delhi and Gurgaon along with a private hospital Wednesday set up a traffic signal free corridor to give uninterrupted passage to transport organs meant for transplant.

On the occasion of Organ Donation Day Aug 6, Fortis Memorial Research Institute (FMRI) collaborated with the Delhi and Gurgaon traffic police to set up a “Corridor of Life” between the Indira Gandhi International Airport and the institute in Gurgaon.

A test run of the corridor that cut travel time and provided uninterrupted road access was carried out Wednesday.

“We want to replicate the success of our Green Corridor initiative at Fortis Malar Hospital in Chennai, where a heart was transported in 14 minutes covering a distance of 12 km and saving the life of a 21 year-old-girl,” Dilpreet Brar, regional director of FMRI, said at the launch.

Brar: “We recognize the importance of an efficient organ transport programme in saving lives and want to work closely with key stakeholders who can enable this process and make this a reality in Delhi-NCR.”

Source:The Hindu

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under About, Traffic Signals

Traffic snarls at toll plaza on airport road

August 5, 2014

After protests against the nearly four-fold hike in toll rates at Sadahalli gate on National Highway 7 that leads to the international airport, commuters are now complaining of traffic snarls at the toll plaza during peak hours.

The Kempegowda International Airport records maximum traffic between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. and between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. Adding to traffic chaos, the toll operators collect the fee at only 10 of the 14 gates at the plaza. The remaining lanes are being used by people living in the surrounding areas.

“It usually takes at least 15 minutes to pass the toll gate during the peak hour,” said Papanna, president of Bangalore International Airport Taxi Owners and Drivers Association. A senior Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation official said that buses were stuck at the toll plaza for nearly 20 minutes during peak hour.The BMTC tried but failed to get a separate lane for public, the official said.

Traffic expert M.N. Srihari said that an estimated 30,000 vehicles ply on the road during rush hour. The toll plaza was not equipped to handle the traffic, he said.

Surendra Kumar, project director, NHAI, Bangalore, told The Hindu that there were only two automated toll-collection lanes whose capacity is 1,200 vehicles per hour. However, the rest of the lanes are manual with a capacity to handle only 240 vehicles per hour.

Source:The Hindu

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under About, Traffic Control

Is Tirupati ready to become a smart city?

August 5, 2014

An aerial view of Tirupati.—Photo: K.V. Poornachandra Kumar

It requires realistic planning, robust execution, unflinching political will and uninterrupted flow of funds

The evolution of Tirupati from a Tier-II city into a smart city, as envisaged by the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, will require realistic planning, robust execution, unflinching political will, keen persuasion by the State and needless to say uninterrupted flow of funds.

In a nutshell, it takes a lot of efforts for the idea to translate into a reality. Though the project’s contours are still hazy and there is nothing on paper yet, city planners and policy makers are taking little steps in that direction with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s directive to envisage plans for the next 50 years, not 20 years being the guiding light.

District Minister Bojjala Gopalakrishna Reddy, who is holding the portfolio of Environment and Forests, calls a ‘smart city’ as the one that provides ‘all comforts to all its residents’. “The proposed smart city will offer housing, water supply, sanitation, electricity, state-of-the-art public transport, higher education, civic amenities and other infrastructural facilities to all its residents by using ‘smart’ technology. It will be an enviable place to live in”, the minister told The Hindu.

While Tirupati relies more on travel, tourism and hospitality industries that generate a major chunk of income, Union Minister Shripad Naik laid the stone for the prestigious Indian Culinary Institute (ICI) here on Sunday, which assures a quantum leap on this front. Now, it is all set to become an Information Technology destination, with the Cabinet clearing the proposals for an IT hub, a Centre-sponsored IT Investment Region (ITIR) and also a Tirupati-Anantapur IT corridor.

The ambitious mix of travel, hospitality and IT industries is sure to catapult Tirupati several rungs higher to make it a real ‘smart city’.

With the city having the imposing Tirumala hills on its immediate north, planned expansion has to happen in the other three directions – Renigunta-Karakambadi on the east, Chandragiri on the west and Rayala Cheruvu on the south. The Avilala and Peruru tanks located on the immediate southern and western make planners task all the more difficult as any expansion has to happen without touching these major water bodies.

In fact, when planned for the next 50 years, the outer periphery of Tirupati is likely to extend southwards up to Puttur-Nagari on the Tamil Nadu border, Mannavaram-Yerpedu-Srikalahasti on the north-east, Rangampet on north-west and Pakala to south-west. “Development of satellite townships and industrial hubs will have to be planned in these directions, considering the natural limitations around the city such as hills, water bodies and reserve forests”, says I. Venkateswara Reddy, Vice-Chairman of the Tirupati Urban Development Authority.

(Reporting by A. D. Rangarajan)

Source:The Hindu

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under About, Andhra Pradesh, Smart City

ATAI bats for regional airports

August 5, 2014

Representatives of airlines, AAI and govt. to meet on August 24

The Air Travellers Association of India has stepped up pressure on the government for reutilisation of old airports constructed long ago and establishment of regional airports in Srikakulam, Nellore, Ongole, Tadepalligudem of West Godavari district, Badangi of Vizianagaram district and other places to meet the future needs of passengers.

The organisation hailed the decision of the government to construct airports in all districts while cautioning that places should be selected strategically to ensure sufficient air traffic from the particular area.

The Association will organise a meeting in Visakhapatnam on August 24 in Visakhapatnam with representatives of airlines, Airport Authority of India and State government. Establishment of regional airports is going to top the agenda of the meeting in which Union Civil Aviation Minister P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju will participate as the chief guest. Association national president D.Varada Reddy held a review meeting with Srikakulam representatives including Natukula Mohan, Korada Haragopal, Kondababu and others here on Monday. He felt that either Etcherla or Narasannapeta would be the right choice for setting up an airport in Srikakulam district so that it could cater the needs of nearby districts of Odisha.

“Hundreds of travellers are forced to travel to Vizag to catch flights. Regional airports will certainly benefit people,” said Mr.Varada Reddy.

“At present, Odisha commuters have to travel either to Berahampur or Vishakapatnam to fly to Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and New Delhi,” he added.

The Air Travellers Association will request airlines to operate more international services from Visakhapatnam since Indian Navy permitted operations in nights, he said.

Source:The Hindu

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under About, Andhra Pradesh

Speed hunters to track over-speeding in Managlore

August 4, 2014

The Mangalore Traffic police will soon put in operation ‘Speed Hunter’, a new tripod mounted device, which will identify over-speeding on the city roads.

The Mangalore Traffic police will soon put in operation ‘Speed Hunter’, a new tripod mounted device, which will identify over-speeding on the city roads. These devices will be in addition to the traffic interceptors that Mangalore police have had for nearly three years.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Uday Nayak said the ‘Speed Hunter’ was an improvement over the camera used in a traffic interceptor. Unlike the interceptor, the ‘Speed Hunter’ detects speeding vehicles based on the speed limits set by the police. “It identifies on its own the number of vehicles that are over-speeding.” In interceptors, Mr. Nayak said, police had to manually ascertain the speed.

Mr. Nayak said the new device works on the Windows system. It also has the Global Positioning System facility. Like in the interceptor, the ‘Speed Hunter’ provides wireless connection to the printer used to print challans along with images of the speeding vehicle.

The Mangalore traffic police have been given two devices — one for the city and another for the newly opened Mangalore Traffic (North) police station in Surathkal. The police were being trained in the use of them. “These new devices will be in action in the next few days,” Mr. Nayak said.

Interceptors

The city traffic police have two traffic interceptors – one in the city and another in Panambur.

These interceptors have not been of much use for traffic enforcement. “There have been problems with the device and hence it has not been of much use,” Mr. Nayak said.

Source: The Hindu

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under About, Tech, Traffic

Delhi to have 8,000 CCTV cameras by 2015

August 4, 2014

By the end of 2015, the city will be placed under the watch of 8,000 cameras, announced Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi on Sunday.

At present, the Delhi Police have just over 4,000 cameras which are installed mainly in busy market areas, traffic intersections and borders for round-the-clock surveillance. The footage captured by these is monitored at the district control rooms by the traffic wing and at the Delhi Police’s Command, Control, Communication, Computing and Intelligence (C4i) centre.

Mr. Bassi was speaking while inaugurating a CCTV Camera Project at Civil Lines under the Delhi Police Neighbourhood Watch Scheme at Shah Auditorium here. Under the project, funded by Residents’ Welfare Association Club Class, 67 CCTV cameras have been installed at various places including the market area, all the entry and exit gates of Civil Lines, and other important points.

What makes this project the first of its kind in Delhi is that the footage captured in these cameras can be viewed at a control room in Civil Lines police station in real time. In all other localities where RWAs have placed cameras, the footage is first recorded and then the recordings are made available to the police on request.

The total cost of the project is around Rs.20 lakh.

Mr. Bassi said the technology used by the Delhi Police is far more advanced and a similar project, if taken up by the Delhi Police, would have cost between Rs.70 lakh to Rs.80 lakh. He also acknowledged that in the past, funds sanctioned for such purposes have never been enough to cover entire Delhi under CCTV surveillance.

He said: “It is good that city residents are coming up with surveillance projects fully funded by themselves. It will be of great help to the police in combating crime in the Capital.”

Source:The Hindu

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under About, CCTV Surveillance

Now GPS in buses and PDS supply trucks to monitor unauthorised detours in Mangalore

August 2, 2014

Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim on Thursday instructed officials of some government departments to ensure that select public transport vehicles fix global positioning system (GPS) equipment by the end of September.

Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim on Thursday instructed officials of some government departments to ensure that select public transport vehicles fix global positioning system (GPS) equipment by the end of September.

It applied to vehicles transporting rice, wheat, sugar and kerosene under the public distribution system (PDS), vehicles of oil companies transporting diesel, petrol, kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), sand transporting vehicles and private and KSRTC buses.

The equipment in vehicles under the PDS system would help monitor the movement of vehicles and to ascertain whether they had delivered the goods to all fair price shops or not. It would also help monitor the parking of such vehicles en route for long time without valid reason.

Deputy Director of Department of Mines and Geology Nagendrappa told the meeting that about 700-800 vehicles transporting sand had the equipment fixed now.

An official of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. said 180 vehicles of the company had the equipment fixed. An official of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. said the company had 80 vehicles for which the process of fixing the equipment was under progress.

The DC instructed that all buses, including private and KSRTC, should fix the equipment, as it would help to know if they were plying on the routes permitted or not. It would also be known if the buses covered the distance allotted or cut short the trips.

Canara Bus Owners’ Association president Rajavarma Ballal said the association had fixed the equipment to all buses under it in 2010-11 at an estimated cost of Rs. 17 lakh. But there was none under the Regional Transport Authority or Regional Transport Office to monitor their movements, hence the system and their maintenance had failed. Mr. Ibrahim said a proper monitoring system would be ensured this time.

Source:The Hindu

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under About, Tech

MCC to build multi-level car parking on its own in Mangalore

August 2, 2014

Old Bus Stand at Hampankatta which is the proposed site for multi-storeyed vehicle park, in Mangalore on October 22, 2008. Photo: R. Eswarraj

The Hindu Old Bus Stand at Hampankatta which is the proposed site for multi-storeyed vehicle park, in Mangalore on October 22, 2008. Photo: R. Eswarraj

Keeping a multi-level car parking-cum-commercial complex proposal at Hampankatta alive, the MCC has decided to take it away from the MUDA and go on its own or through a public private partnership (PPP).

Keeping a multi-level car parking-cum-commercial complex proposal at Hampankatta alive, the Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) has decided to take it away from the Mangalore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) and go on its own or through a public private partnership (PPP).

The council of the corporation on Thursday gave its approval to withdraw the proposal given to the MUDA.

Now the corporation is focusing on the project for which the State government is expected to sanction 50 per cent of the project cost.

Mayor Mahabala Marla said that it was more than five years now since the proposal was given to MUDA.

Of the 215.50 cents of land available in the old service bus stand at Hampankatta, the civic body owns 155 cents and the remaining 60.50 cents – where there are five buildings – belong to three private parties.

Mr. Marla told The Hindu that the matter had been taken up with the Minister for Urban Development Vinay Kumar Sorake, who has promised support of the State government. The corporation is yet to decide whether to take up the project on its own or through a PPP model.

Blueprint

The Mayor said that now the corporation would ask a consultancy to prepare a blueprint of the proposed project. The matter would be discussed in the development committee of the civic body and a decision would be taken on how to proceed with the project.

Mr. Sorake told The Hindu over phone that the government could sanction 50 per cent of the project cost through the Directorate of Urban Transport Authority (DUTA) under the Urban Development Department. The government planned to reduce the density of vehicles in city corporations in the State. Hence DUTA had been constituted with an objective to coordinate planning and implementation of urban transport projects and programmes, he said.

He said his department would verify the Hampankatta project once the MCC sent a proposal and project report to the government.

The Mayor said the corporation was also examining if it was possible to introduce a single parking fee payment facility in the central business district area in the city. With this, a driver should be able to park his or her vehicle at three for four notified places on roadside by paying a parking fee at any one place. Then drivers and owners need not pay parking fee every time they parked vehicles within a radius of two or three kilometres.

Source:The Hindu

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under About, Parking

MVD’s interceptors turn money-spinners

July 31, 2014

The Hindu MVD officials on enforcement drive using the newly inducted interceptor. Photo : Special arrangement

Mobile interceptors of the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) in the district have proved to be money-spinners, these two interceptors in the city have raked in over Rs. 25 lakh in just over a couple of months

Mobile interceptors of the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) in the district have proved to be money-spinners.

Two interceptors have raked in over Rs. 25 lakh in just over a couple of months, with the department laughing all the way to the bank.

Those carried away by the thrill of over-speeding have turned out to be the biggest contributors, with motorists indulging in drunk, rash and negligent driving left not too far behind.

With the speed limit restricted to 30 km per hour (kmph) near schools, the strategic deployment of interceptors near these institutions helps bring in more moolah as hitting even 40 kmph is chargeable.

The drivers of taxis and other transportation vehicles speeding along at 90 kmph along four lane national highways ignorant of the 70-kmph restriction are also trapped by interceptors.

Only private vehicles are allowed 90-kmph speed on national highways.

No barriers for these buses

Private buses plying in the city have the uncanny knack of flouting rules notwithstanding the odds stacked against their actions.

A classic case plays out at Pipeline near Palarivattom Bypass Junction.

Not that long ago, the traffic police put up barriers along the stretch considering the narrowness of the Kakkanad-Palarivattom Road and the haphazard traffic approaching the bypass junction.

The barriers erected down the middle of the road were meant to bring about a semblance of order and more specifically aimed at keeping in check the unmindful overtaking of motorists trying to cross the junction before the signal turns red.

But some bus drivers proceeding in the direction of Kakkanad continue to overtake along the opposite track as if the barriers were non-existent.

This throws traffic on the two directions out of gear besides worsening the ordeal of motorists waiting at the traffic signal.

A breather for taxi owners

The four-month-long anxious wait of taxi and private car owners has eventually come to an end with the State government issuing an order last week easing the payment of tax.

The State budget had directed payment of tax by vehicle owners for five years from April 1 unlike for each year until then.

Car owners, especially, taxi operators found this to be a huge burden as they had to raise more than Rs. 10,000 as against a little over Rs. 2,000. Those who withheld payment of tax proved to be wise as the order has come with retrospective effect.

Source:The Hindu

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under About, Andhra Pradesh, Tech

A dangerous stretch of NH

July 31, 2014

15 accidents reported during this monsoon The number of accidents on the Kozhikode-Kannur stretch of the National Highway 17, especially the 44-kilometre stretch between Vadakara and Kannur, is yet to come down despite efforts by the Motor Vehicle Department and the police to strictly implement traffic rules. Since the beginning of the monsoon season, no fewer than 15 accidents were reported on the route, including those involving school buses, motorbikes, goods-carriers, and buses. “The vehicles, especially contract carriages, seem to be exploiting to the hilt the recent modification of speed limit to 80 km per hour,” Radhakrishnan, a native of Vadakara, says. Even during rainy days, vehicles are found crossing this speed limit unmindful of the slippery road and blurred vision. Senior officials of the Motor Vehicles Department say they have identified 18 “black spots” on the Kozhikode-Kannur national highway to take up surveillance measures. “We identified these spots taking into account the frequency of accidents there,” they say. MVD sources say an earlier suggestion to install radar cameras on all identified “black spots” is still pending. Same is the case with the proposal to set up special control rooms to receive live feeds from radar cameras. Along with surveillance, rescue operations too are facing setback. In a recent accident, three injured travellers in an overturned car had to remain inside the vehicle for over two hours as local people had no mechanism to pull them out. In another incident, it took hours to remove a car that was gutted near a busy traffic junction in Vadakara.

18 black spots identified on the 44-km stretch

Proposal to set up radar cameras with live feeds

Source:The Hindu

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under About

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