An aerial view of the Mandya bypass on the 10-lane Access-Controlled Mysuru-Bengaluru Expressway tweeted by Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha.
By S.T. Ravikumar
Mysore/Mysuru: The Mandya bypass on the 10-lane Access-Controlled Mysuru-Bengaluru Expressway (NH-275) is now open for public use. Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha, who played a vital role in sanctioning and implementing the project from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, confirmed the same on social media on Wednesday.
With the opening of the Mandya bypass, it will be easier to travel on the stretch as it helps the commuters avoid congested parts of the city and town areas while travelling between the two cities. The Ramanagara and Channapatna bypasses have already been opened on the Expressway which has a design length of 118-km and is scheduled to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections.
“Mandya bypass opens for traffic! Enjoy the drive. BUT Speed Kills; Safe Drive,” Pratap Simha said on Twitter.
The safety aspect of the Expressway, a soon-to-be one of the busiest arterial corridors, has come to the fore again with regular accidents. Sources from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) told Star of Mysore that the Expressway has been designed to achieve a speed of 110 to 120 kms per hour but commuters are cruising at a break-neck speed of 150 to 160 km per hour.
“Cars and SUVs are reaching Bengaluru within one-and-a-half-hours even before the Expressway is fully opened. The NHAI has sent a proposal to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to implement an Intelligent Highway Information and Traffic Management System (IHI-TMS) on this Expressway to control accidents and theft of metal barricades laid by the sides and pipes to drain off water,” sources told Star of Mysore.
Artificial Intelligence application
Sources said that IHI-TMS, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) application connected with high-tech CCTV cameras, will be installed at every 500 to 700 metres and will comprise sensors as well as other traffic violation detection systems such as lane cutting and overspeeding to minimise the number of accidents and to regulate and effectively manage traffic.
The IHI-TMS designing is done in such a way that it provides real-time updates to NHAI, jurisdictional Police, Fire and ambulances on their Central Command Centre setup, to keep a check on traffic violators and rush for help in case of medical emergencies.
According to sources, the IHI-TMS will help them control traffic as well as increase road discipline as violators will be booked and issued challans with penalties. Besides, it will help monitor the stretch at all times as well as mitigate accident-like situations.
Salient features of IHI-TMS
As per the proposal sent by the NHAI, the IHI-TMS will comprise app-based toll-way payments to ease congestion at toll plazas, automated speed violation detection with e-challan, slow-moving traffic alerts at command centres, traffic density and jam alerts at the command centre and apps and peak and off-peak traffic analysis across the stretch of the highway.
The other features are automated accident detection with instant alerts to the nearest Police Station, hospital, ambulance and command centre for saving lives within the golden hour, vehicle type, vehicle count, vehicle brand and colour identification.
The IHI-TMS will also help highway maintenance like pothole detection and alerts, water stagnation, unidentified object detection and alerts, highway asset monitoring and tracking towards prevention of thefts and pilferage.
It will have an integrated command centre with a video wall, artificial intelligence applications to monitor the stretch of highway in one view and artificial intelligence-based blackspot video analysis to reduce accidents.
It will detect wrong-way driving with instant alerts and e-challan integration. An integral part of the IHI-TMS is an artificial intelligence-based emergency response system for accident victims and support from the command centre.
Theft of barricades, water pipes baffles NHAI Officers
Thieves are stealing parts of the specially fabricated stainless steel crash barriers on the Mysuru-Bengaluru Expressway and a majority of the thefts have been reported in Bidadi, Ramanagara and Mandya on either side.
The intricately designed railings are made of high-grade steel that costs more in the scrap market. “We have fenced major portions of the Highway for safety reasons but shockingly, the barricades are cut and taken away, mostly after dark. We have seen this phenomenon since the last three to four months, especially when the date of Expressway opening is nearing,” said an officer from the National Highways Authority of India.
These barriers are expensive and value more than the regular such materials that are sent to scrap yards. They are a part of a beautification and safety project but wily thieves managed to strike and take away a considerable number of barricades to sell them cheaply to scrap dealers, the officer said.
Not only barricades but also water pipes are their target. “We have installed many pipes on the elevated roads for the rainwater to flow smoothly. Even they are not spared,” the officer said and noted that once the Intelligent Highway Information and Traffic Management System is implemented, there will be no opportunity for the thieves to steal.
What will be installed on the Expressway?
- Lane Discipline Violation Detection System
- Average Speed Detection Systems
- Automatic Number Plate Recognition System
- Violation detection cameras
- CCTVs at every 600 metres for general surveillance
- Wrong-way Entry Detection system
- High-tech mobile surveillance vans with speed guns
- Integration of cameras and e-challan machines
- Intelligent Vehicle Tracking System
The service road work looks far from completed. Even the landscaping and finishing work of main carriageway is not yet done.
All the listed properties of the highway are a bull shit.
With these many bypasses, and the expected massive traffic of 4 wheelers on this highway, it will take just 6 months or more to see how this highway becomes very ineffective, as the traffic crawls along slowly. Within a year, one would see the deteriorating conditions of the road-material peeling off, flooding etc.. Artificial intelligence? Will not work when there is no intelligence that drives it!
It appears, it is not the tribal woman Murmu, the president who will inaugurate, but Narendra Modi of BBC Panorama Programme fame, who is scared of losing the election in Karnataka to come and boast about his Tech India and the nonsense, not shamed about China occupying yet more territories in a recent conflict along the Himachal Pradesh corridor, which he managed to suppress as news in India.
This is great! When all the proposed initiatives are implemented and strictly enforced, this expressway will become one of the best smart motorways/expressways, without a doubt. If the capacity of this expressway is going to be exceeded ever, Government could also commence planning for a new expressway via the Malavalli route and keep it ready on the shelf together with other measures for reducing road traffic.
MoRTH (Ministry of Road Transport and Highways should come up with an organisation in the lines of AAA (American Automobile Association) so that tourists can get 24/7 Road Side Assistance for their Vehicles including Towing service and Battery Replacement in case of a vehicle breakdown. They can also tie up with IOC(Indian Oil Corporation) , BPCL(Bharat Petroleum) ,HPCL(Hindustan Petroleum) or Jio-BP(Reliance Petroleum) to offer discounts on Food ,Shopping and other Traveller Essential Services at the Retail Stores at their Fuel stations. on the Expressways.
Signages which are very important while declaring a Bypass open are yet to come up , reminders like next Fuel Station , next Puncture Shop , next police station limits, Ambulance Number and Towing Service numbers are a must every few kilometres and must have been installed by now.
Also the Flowering Plants that are going to be planted in the middle median need to be maintained by NHAI and should not become an eyesore in few years time.
if the Peripheral Ring Road in Mysuru is ready in the next few years then traffic towards Kerala , Tamilnadu , Ooty , Kabini , Bandipur , Coorg etc will not have to enter Mysuru City.
Anti national elements are always finding fault with modu govt in all matters whereas foreign dignatories praise modi. These fellows get aid from our enemies to abuse the government.
Very good job done by Shri Gadkari and his team thanks particularly to Shri Pratap Simha for taking particular interest in his pet project likewise I request Both the Shri Gadkari and Shri Pratap Simha to expedite Mysore Madikeri highway at the earliest and give helping hand to our Humble PM Shri Modiji.
Hey posters including @Kini
Hold your eulogies until this highway is used for at least a few months
As the saying goes , even a donkey calf looks beautiful when born.
Not faar from Mandya and this 10-lane highway, the other day, Malgudi Express simply ran over a woman who was standing in the middle of the track, next to the train from where she alighted, talking with some one ! Besides, that representing the third world India, where were the wonderful AI-driven sensors t similar to use in the highway, not available for that train track section?
You see in India, these structures look good, before they are subjected to use like massive traffic along the highway-straight through and by passes, which one could imagine clog up the highway, all the time in a day, and in-disciplined Indians getting frustrated, and try to drive their cars fast through.
@Kini wants wants tourists loads of them in their buses, because they bring their business to him!
, I heard that the UAE resident Keralite businessmen, to who Modi agreed to have non-stop direct flights from Abu Dhabi to Mysore, when he was there a few months ago, are planning to smuggle gold into Mysore Airport,-they are really the smugglers of gold into Kerala , and want to expand their business to Mysore . They see this highway as a huge opportunity to distribute this gold into towns along the highway. They also want to see their current operations of Hawala money into Mysore through the Wayanad-Nanjangid corridor, expanded too in this Mysore-Bangalore route into places like Mandya, Chennapatna and to Bangalore. They have already set up the infrastructure in Mysore, buying warehouses and a fleet of German cars.
Enjoy your highway then!
Whatever be the development , strict rules to enforce speed limit say 120 km per hour
should be implemented, so that the new expressway is safe, not prone to accidents from SPEED point if view. The credit of such safety measure will then entirely go to the authorities concerned.
Barricades Stealing
Catch thieves and punish them
Very good achievement. Instead of 3 hours the running time is reduced to half. But speed limits are to be strictly adhered. Those who violates speed and lane discipline should penalised with heavy monetary penalty and also restricted with suspension of driving licence.
The construction is completed with little delay. That’s the Indian standard. The quality of road is good. The sick mentality people will always pass bad comment about good work. However that will be neglected. Keep doing good work.
One of the biggest Problem is the slow moving trucks occupying all lanes forcing vars to change lanes more frequently. Trucks should be allowed only on the left most lanes and allow them only change lane for overthinking other trucks and go back to left lane once overthinking is done.
Hey Abdullah Ayyar!
The name Abdullah is Muslim, and the name Ayyar belongs to a Hindu sub-caste who have variations of it like: Iyer, Aiyar, Aiyer etc..
You also need to learn to write in English which is grammatically right. Do not treat English like you treat Urdu!
About your suggestion: Not bright is it, when slow moving trucks are shunted into a lane for slow moving vehicles.
I expected you to suggest a name like Tipu Sultan Highway
@Savithri, @Suresh and @sasi
@Sasvithri
Have you seen anywhere including your Tamil Nadu, people obeying laws? !20 miles per hour in an India highway is a speed which cannot be controlled if the driver is using an Indian car which has poor brakes. This is not Autobahn of Germany, and the German cars using it. With entries of cars from by passes like in Mandya joining the straight traffic, how would you manage an Indian-made car speeding at 120 MPH? Recipe for serious accidents, and many deaths.
@S uresh
Have your Mysore police caught and punished any one who snatch gold chains? This time of crime is mushrooming in Mysore, and no one is caught yet. If that is the case, Police will not worry any one stealing barricades!
@Sasi
Can you guess how many cars will be on this Highway, from Mysore, from by passes like Mandya etc.., given that Indians want cars through any means, even part of a dowry? If those many cars are driven by the combined populations of Mysore, Mandya etc.. , this Highway will be reduced to some thing like a huge car park, with slow moving and frustrating experience. You will see that the journey will be more than 3 hours, as a result, taking into account the time needed to pay tolls at various points.
This is a wasteful and ill-thought out project.
Instead the central highway ministry should have implemented a modest increase in the lanes, and should have increased the number of Mysore-Bangalore train tracks so that some train schedules could be express trains which do not stop except at the destination. Electrification is the key for these trains.
This is a project that the BJP central government thought out to win the BJP election in the state.
You will all come back and narrate how bad this highway has become by this time next year.
Good job by NHA. There are negative mind set people, just ignore them & appreciate the good work of the govt.
Hi the project is good and road also very good with super sight scenes, but while returning to Bangalore we get stucks in traffic that is pathetic, pls look into that