Traffic engineering: Four green signals before you see a red one

Thirty five more signals to be added along with cameras and more traffic control in Lahore.

LAHORE: The Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency (TEPA), in collaboration with Turkish government owned company ISBAK, plans to install an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) to control the flow of traffic in the city more effectively.

The traffic in Lahore, excluding Cantt, is controlled with the aid of 149 traffic signals. TEPA plans to upgrade and link these with the ITS and add 35 more signals in northern Lahore.

All the new signals will have cameras and time controllers will also be installed.

The signals will be connected to two traffic control rooms, one in northern Lahore on the Grand Trunk Road and the other in south Lahore at Gadaffi Stadium, and a central information control room at TEPA’s office on Lytton Road.

The signals will be wirelessly connected to the control rooms and TEPA officials as well as traffic and district police will be able to monitor the traffic flow. The cameras installed with the traffic signals will send traffic load information and enable the monitoring officials to control traffic congestion using the real time information. The officials will be able to change the signal from red to green and vice versa in view of the traffic load. Commuters will, hopefully, find at least four green signals before stopping at a red one.

The project is estimated to cost Rs2.5 billion.

The initial plan was to install the system in one go. But due to scarcity of funds, TEPA will now break the installation into three phases.

The first phase will cover The Mall, Jail Road and Ferozepur Road. Phase two will only being once the first phase is completed and is known to have been a success. Gulberg Main Boulevard, Multan Road, Ravi Road, Maulana Shaukat Ali Road and their tributary roads like Zafar Ali Road and Hali Road will get the ITS during phase two.

The third, and final, phase will cover northern Lahore, along with Circular Road where 35 new signals are to be installed.

TEPA’s Traffic Engineering director Asrar Saeed said, “It is not easy to install the ITS at once” adding that the breakdown into three phases will make it more manageable.

“ISBAK will train TEPA officials in implementing the ITS,” he said. The company, he said, will only share the knowledge and skills. The Punjab government will be responsible for all the funds.

TEPA is considering encouraging public private partnerships to sponsor ITS, Saeed said. “We are at the final planning stages. We will soon present a summary to the chief minister for approval.”

He said once installed, the system would aid officials with the security situation. “The system will show its effectiveness during peak hours and during VVIP movements,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2011.