NHAI – Advanced Traffic Management System

National Highway Authority of India is coming up with all the best possible facilities to take better care of the highway commuters. Now, NHAI has set up the world-class incident management system on national highways. It is one of the systems under Advanced Traffic Management System. This will provide the facilities like ambulance, crane, GPS monitored patrolling vehicle and more. The target is to provide the required facilities within 15 minutes on the highways in case of emergencies. Apart from this, NHAI is setting up the 24X7 National Highways Helpline – 1033 for the highway users and making a Central Command and Control Centre at HQ to monitor the Highway traffic.
According to several surveys, every year around 1.5 lakh people meet their fate on Indian roads in accidents. These worrying statistics of road accidents made the government think seriously and as a result of which Incident Management System came to an existence. Under this system, ambulances will be positioned every 50 Kms on the National Highways, ready to respond to an accident within 15 minutes after receiving the information. As per the parameters, NHAI is deploying large ‘four bedded’ ambulance with medical recovery systems placed at every 100 Kms and also the ‘two patient capacity’ ambulance at every 40-45 Kms on the Highways. The first phase of this system has already started from December in Tami Nadu, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. Further extension of this system will be carried out in Telangana and Karnataka as well.
Advance Traffic Management System (ATMS) has the following objectives:
•    Smooth and uninterrupted traffic flow
•    Enhance road safety
•    Real-time information and guidance to users
•    24X7 - Emergency assistance
•    Alerts for abnormal road and weather conditions
•    Reduced journey time and inconvenience
Keeping in view the above objectives, ATMS shall provide the following facilities to various stakeholders:
Highway users
1. 24X7 National Highways Helpline – 1033 – for the instant assistance during emergencies like accidents, breakdown, fire, and ambulance.
2. Alerts or alarm messages about the unusual condition on the road.
Traffic managers
1. Information for effective handling of traffic.
2. Information regarding the location of an accident for quick assistance.
3. Mobilize, monitor and guide the movement of ambulances, cranes and patrolling vehicles through GPS monitoring.
Regional control centre and master control HQ
1. Provision of reviewing live feed and recorded archives of CCTV.
2. Live audio patch-up with the highway stretch manager, ambulance facility and trauma centre.
3. Assessment of traffic at a specific location on the Highway for authority to take adequate actions thereupon.
4. Live feed of details related to incident management and GIS map-based monitoring facility of the entire highway stretch.
5. Active monitoring of the service provider performance.