Eastern Express Highway will flash live traffic updates

You would soon be able to get real-time traffic updates while commuting on the arterial Eastern Express Highway, which links the central suburbs to south Mumbai.

The state's public works department is planning to instal digital signboards at several locations on the Eastern Express Highway (EEH) which will forecast the traffic situation to motorists, intimating them of diversions and vehicular movement.

The PWD says the traffic updates will be flashed on the screens on the basis of information received from the traffic police control room, and not Google Maps. The traffic police are a more accurate source of information, the department says.

The move is aimed at smoothening the ride for thousands who ride the Expressway stretch between Mulund and Sion daily.

"We are planning to instal digital signboards at several crucial stretches of EEH to give traffic information in the form of updates to the motorists in real time," a PWD official said.

He elaborated why it is preferable for the updates to flow from the traffic police's control room. "Google Maps highlights heavy traffic by colouring a stretch red but it does not say why. For example, there may be construction under way and the road may be blocked. Then there are times when there are traffic diversions, which only the traffic control room would be able to inform people about."

The official said that bids have been called from various private companies to get a cost estimate for putting up these digital signboards, and to assess how much revenue can be generated from advertising on these signboards.

While in the process, the PWD also plans to improve signage at six locations on the 23-km long highway, and set forth traffic directions along with safety rules on speeding, wearing protective gear and seat belt will be displayed prominently.

More than 50,000 vehicles use the EEH daily, which is an arterial road in that it is the central suburbs' answer to the Western Express Highway. It starts at Sion and, passing through all central suburbs, ends in Thane.

Mulund resident Nishit Modi, a regular commuter to south Mumbai, said, "The digital signboards will be useful for the traffic department to inform motorists during an emergency, but to be frank, they might not be that useful considering Google Maps is already real-time and is easily accessible to all. In any case, the digital signboards would not be able to help me when I start from my home at Mulund."

CENTRAL ARTERY

• Daily, over 50,000 vehicles use EEH, which runs from Thane all the way till Sion, linking central suburbs to south Mumbai
   
• The highway has two crucial offshoots leading to the western suburbs — Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road and Santacruz-Chembur Link Road
   
• It has a fork at Chembur towards Navi Mumbai — the Sion-Panvel Highway