Traffic control: CCTV cameras to be set up on Ferozepur Road

Govt advised to install intelligent transport system in city.

LAHORE:

The Punjab government has been advised to set up a series of CCTV cameras along Ferozepur Road as a first step towards developing an intelligent transportation system in Lahore to manage traffic and monitor crime.

A committee headed by Lahore Transport Company Chairman Khawaja Ahmad Hassaan met recently and recommended that a Turkish company called ISBAK be hired to install an intelligent transport system (ITS) in the city, an official told The Express Tribune.

The committee was set up by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to consider the viability of such a system and its advantages, as well as how to set it up. An ITS uses information and communication technology to improve traffic flow and safety.

Committee members visited Karachi to look at the system installed by the city district government, but they agreed that it was not a comprehensive ITS that could cater to the growing need for efficient traffic management and crowd monitoring.

The committee decided to recommend ISBAK, a Turkish company responsible for the ITS in place in Istanbul. Hassaan and Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman, Punjab’s minister for transport, visited the company headquarters in Istanbul last month. The committee directed the Traffic Engineering and Planning Authority to examine and negotiate a detailed agreement with ISBAK, after the chief minister grants approval.

The official said that the committee had decided that CCTV cameras would be installed on Ferozepur Road as a first step to help control traffic, as the setting up of a comprehensive smart traffic system would take a while.

A control room will be set up at the IT Tower for the monitoring of the CCTV footage and eventually the ITS, he added.

The system would provide real time information on traffic that could be broadcast to the general public through FM radio and mobile phones.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th, 2011.