Adding luster to the smart city project, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) is all set to seal Rs.600 crore deal with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to implement a smart and intelligent traffic monitoring system in the Chennai Smart City project, said Additional commissioner (traffic) A Arun, claiming that the that the city traffic police department was upbeat about the project as withdrawal of traffic personnel from junctions could eventually be possible since the project relied upon information gathered from CCTV cameras, violators will not escape penal action. The deal, claimed official sources, is likely to be signed in New Delhi in the next fortnight. While the initial funding estimate was closer to Rs.900 crore, subsequent re-evaluations caused the demand to drop. The funds will be released in phases and will eventually cover more than 350 traffic junctions in the city and the first phase of project implementation will see the integration of around 150 traffic signals in the core city limits. We are simultaneously conducting a study of the remaining signals and traffic patterns at these junctions to figure out how best to integrate them with the network.
