Traffic Incident Management System (TIMS) On Chardham Route For Quick Response In Emergency

CCTV cameras, speed detection devices and live updates on weather are among other services to be part of the Traffic Incident Management System to be implemented on pilgrim routes of Charadham as the government will soon roll out a Rs 200 crore scheme for this.

The aim is to ensure monitoring of traffic and incidents along the Chardham route for quick response to people in any emergency, maintains the Road Transport and Highways Ministry.

The Traffic Incident Management System (TIMS) on the pilgrimage route will cover approximately 835 km, which will also include Pithoragarh-Tanakpur stretch, and would be implemented in three years.

As per the plan, the four National Highway (NH) and one State Highway (SH) stretches will get around 1,400 CCTV cameras for monitoring of traffic and incidents.

Around 60 speed detection devices will be installed to catch speeding and another over 200 fixed cameras would be put in place for automatic detection of accidents or any other incident on the stretch.

The central hub of TIMS will have access to the central registry of vehicles.

It will also have integration with the weather monitoring by the Met department, earthquake and landslide monitoring by the Uttarakhand disaster management authority and flood monitoring by the Central Water Commission.

Lakhs of pilgrims use the four NHs from Rishikesh for Chardham Yatra in clockwise direction from Yamunotri, Gangotri and Kedarnath to Badrinath. Sources said several pilgrims take the SH from Dharasu to Rudraprayag and so this stretch may also be included in the TIMS scheme.

Sources said the plan is to roll out this scheme in three phases. In the first phase, approximately 120 km would be covered and in Phase 2, another 280 km brought under this system. The remaining 434 km would be covered in the third phase.

The Ministry has held several rounds of meetings with the Uttarakhand government and its agencies such as police and health department.

Since the focus is to ensure safety of the road users and ‘yatris’, this project will have total integration with the state police and health department. One has to ensure that an ambulance reaches any incident spot in less than 15 minutes and the victims get quick medical care.