Maharashtra To Deploy South Korean Tech To Monitor 701 Km Long Mumbai - Nagpur Expressway

In a first, an intelligent transportation system (ITS) technology sourced from South Korea will be deployed to monitor and manage the 701-km Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway.

Improving the safety of motorists and aiding in the prevention of accidents, the Korean ITS technology performs vehicle detection, traffic violation control, and surveillance, video incident detection, visual messaging service, drone-based surveillance of the route, lane control systems, tunnel management system, weigh in motion, speed and lane enforcement.

“A tunnel traffic management centre will be set up for tunnels that will automatically close the entrance in case of a serious accident. Vehicles approaching the tunnel will be informed that the tunnel has been closed by an automated system while they are at a distance,” officials of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), the nodal agency executing this expressway project, told The Indian Express.

“The centralised system will be able to monitor the traffic on the highways through CCTV and get a real-time update of the vehicular traffic, its speed, accidents and weather in one place with the help of technology and will help prevent accidents. Drone cameras will also be used to keep an eye on the highway,” an official said.

The system is funded by the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) of South Korea and soon the agreement regarding the same will be signed between the two countries.

The eight-lane, 701-km long expressway crosses through 10 districts and is set to cut the travelling time from Mumbai to Nagpur to eight hours from 18 hours.

The new expressway in Maharashtra begins in a small village, Shivmadka in Hingna tehsil located at a distance of 23 km away from Nagpur. It currently serves as the outer bypass to the city.

The 701 km-long high-speed corridor designed for a top speed of 150 km per hour is being built at a total cost of around Rs 55,000 crore.