Government to survey traffic at 1,600 locations for highway expansion

NEW DELHI: In a move that would help the government identify which highway stretches need immediate expansion and to plan them scientifically, the road transport ministry will start traffic study from October at 1,600 locations across the country.

The survey would be repeated every six months and is aimed at getting traffic data on each specific stretch. Officials said this would help understand the trend of traffic growth or reduction and which category of vehicles predominates on which stretch.

At present, studies are done just before projects are taken up for expansion to assess whether widening work involving huge investment is economically viable. "Under this scheme, the company that would get the work will conduct traffic study for seven days and will use automatic vehicle counter-cum-classifier (AVCC). This will get repeated every six months and will be a continuous programme," a road ministry official said.

Sources said data coming from all locations will be pooled at a control room and the ministry can get customized data to understand the trend of vehicle flow including pattern in urban and rural locations, factors for seasonal traffic variation and traffic growth. "This will also help us for forecasting. Getting real data on the peak hour and lean hour analysis and factors will help us to design the road capacity while expanding them," an official said.

At present, there is wide variation between the projected traffic growth that NHAI and road ministry considers while floating tenders and what the private players project. "Though usually the government estimate is less than what developers forecast, in recent years it has been the other way round because of poor growth. Such study twice a year will help all stakeholders get a clear picture so that there is neither under or over estimation of traffic growth," said an NHAI official.