Rawalpindi: Urban Traffic Control System to become operational after Eid

[Naveed Yaseen]

Rs 36m project to improve traffic on BBS Road:

* RDA installs six CCTV cameras, traffic signal polls from Marrir Chowk to Shamsabad
* Control room to be established at RDA offices

By Aamir Yasin

RAWALPINDI: Urban Traffic Control System (UTCS) Project worth of Rs 36 million will start functioning after Eidul Fitr, a senior official of Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) told Daily Times on Wednesday.

He said under UTCS Project RDA had installed traffic signal polls from Marrir Chowk to Double Road, Shamsabad. The RDA has purchased this system from a private company with five years maintenance warranty, he added.

Control room: The official said the UTCS would improve traffic flow on Benazir Bhutto Shaheed (BBS) Road. He said UTCS was used in developed countries to coordinate traffic signals, normally through a centrally located computer. He said the control room would be established at RDA offices located at Liaquat Bagh to monitor the traffic congestion.

He said there was an urgent need of UTCS to ease traffic flow on BBS Road as the number of registered vehicles in Rawalpindi and Islamabad had touched 600,000 and 100,000 figures respectively resulting in regular traffic congestion on roads.

CCTV: He said RDA had installed six close circuit television (CCTV) cameras at Marrir Chowk, Liaquat Bagh Chowk, Committee Chowk, Chandni Chowk, Rehmanabad Chowk and 6th Road Chowk to monitor traffic congestion on BBS Road.

He said RDA had requested the Punjab government to allocate more funds to install four CCTV cameras at Double Road, Kohati Bazaar, Naz Cinema and Asghar Mall Chowk.

RDA Director General (DG) Makeen Shahbaz told Daily Times that they had directed the consultant to install software for computer data of traffic flow within a week to make the UTCS Project operational by Eidul Fitr.

He said the consultant would feed the data of traffic flow at each signal from Marrir Chowk to Double Road and they would adjust the timings of signals and control it from the control room.

He said the traffic police and RDA official would man the control room to control the traffic flow.

RDA DG: The RDA DG, who is also traffic engineer, said UTCS would save the precious time and fuel of the commuters. He said after checking the effectiveness of UTCS at Liaquat Bagh, the project had been started from Marrir Chowk to Double Road, as the traffic congestion had become a routine on this portion of BBS Road.

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