In order to make traffic movement smooth in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to convert all manually-controlled traffic signals to an automatic system (Area Traffic Control). At present, there are 613 traffic signals in the city of which 253 have already been converted to ATC.
With more than 750 new vehicles being registered every day, the situation has become unbearable for both motorists and traffic authorities.
A senior official from the traffic department of BMC said that ATC can solve the problem to some extent as it works on the flow of vehicles, and accordingly sets timing of traffic signals. “An intelligent traffic control system, ATC is equipped with sensors that capture the traffic data in real time, calculate the optimal time for signals and transmit the data to the control centre,” said the official. He added that this process makes it easy to set timing of a particular traffic signal.
The installation of ATC at the remaining 360 signals will be completed soon and the civic body will need to spend around Rs 150 crore on the project. Most of the non-ATC signals are in the western and eastern suburbs.
The official said that a non-ATC signal works manually and traffic density is studied by a team of BMC and traffic officials. These timings are fed manually from time-to-time. The team visits the spot and studies the traffic situation on all sides and the time taken for vehicles to cross the junction.
However, with ATC, there is no need to do all such works. “The ATC works on sensors and it can check traffic at a particular signal, and set the timing accordingly,” said the official. He added that it also sets timings of a particular stretch of other traffic signals to clear traffic.
