Preeja Prasad By Express News Service BENGALURU: The city will soon be looking at bringing back automated traffic signals, a project which has been on hold since 2016, when a pilot test was conducted. Now, city traffic police are planning real-time monitoring of traffic flow at junctions, and are syncing traffic lights accordingly. “We are looking at bringing in these adaptive signals, which can calculate traffic density. We are in talks with other departments as well. Our focus is to decongest CBD areas,” said Joint Commissioner of Traffic, Ravikanthe Gowda. In 2016, this was part of phase-2 of the Bangalore Traffic Improvement Project (B-TRAC). The initiative to bring in an intelligent traffic signal system was a key component of the `175 crore project.As of now, there are 35 adaptive signals, which were part of the pilot project. Eventually, the department had decided to increase the number of signals to 353 Vehicle Actuated Adoptive Signals (VAAS). The pilot project started out with installations in four areas - K R Puram, Old Madras Road, Banaswadi and Mathikere - which are maintained by state-run Bharat Electronics (BEL). The project was initiated by former Traffic Commissioner R Hithendra, but had been under the rug until P Harishekaran brought it up in February this year during a press conference. The project is said to cost around `70-80 crore, but the proposal was put on hold as it was difficult to implement synchronisation due to technical reasons, such as infrastructure patterns in the city.“We are yet to get an update from the Traffic Department regarding the project,” said a senior officer of the Traffic Engineering cell at the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike.

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