Lucknow: Making reels, stunting and over-speeding could have serious implications for motorists who are planning to hit the Lucknow-Kanpur expressway as soon as it is thrown open for vehicular movement. NHAI (National Highways Authority of India) officials on Friday said that an advanced control room worth Rs 9 crore has been set up to monitor each and every inch of the 63km expressway.Designed to safely maintain a maximum speed of 120 km per hour, all the activities taking place on the 6-lane wide carriageway would be under surveillance. Also, doctors and paramedics would be deputed at the advanced traffic control room, which is situated in Unnao, to handle emergency cases. The expressway is expected to be thrown open for motorists in April.Gautam Vishal, chief general manager, NHAI UP West, said, “We took all the precautions that will make commuting safe for the vehicle owners. Technology tools, software and artificial intelligence are going to be extensively used to maintain the highest safety standards that are followed globally.”While 63 long-range vision cameras, with the capacity to read the registration plate of a motor vehicle from a distance of 500 metres, are being installed to curb cases of over-speeding, 16 VIDES (Video Incident Detection and Enforcement System) cameras using artificial intelligence would generate alerts to the patrolling staff members and paramedics as soon as a car crash takes place. “The algorithm is able to detect sudden behaviour of a vehicle on the stretch. It is also able to distinguish the hazards associated with car crashes, such as smoke, fire, sudden braking, tyre burst, etc. Geotagged alerts with time-stamping and the registration number of the vehicle would be flashed to the control room,” said NHAI deputy general manager, Nakul Prakash Verma, from the Lucknow project implementation unit.In addition to the protocol, emergency call boxes have laos been placed at a distance of 2 km on both sides to help stranded individuals. Through a 2-way voice communication system, individuals who do not have a phone or any other medium would get an option to report their emergency manually.
