By Sue-Ann Wayow
INCREASING traffic on the nation’s roads has caused the Ministry of Works and Transport to pump half a million US dollars into digital upgrades of its Traffic Management Centre.
The US$500,000 is a grant from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
On Tuesday, Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan launched the expansion of the Traffic Management Centre located at the Caroni Licensing Office.
He said, “The amount of cameras that is being monitored here is being expanded. The idea here is to monitor all the major road networks, the entire highway network and that way we can without having to build more roads, manage the traffic.
Sinanan said with the use of a smartphone, motorists can communicate with the ministry and vice versa.
“At the end of the day, what we are hoping to see is a lot of lighted signs on the highway where we can put information from here onto these signs. So before you approach an area where there may be an accident or a traffic pile-up, you can redirect,” he said.
The Ministry of National Security is partnering with the Ministry of Works and Transport to provide additional CCTV coverage.
President of the IDB Ilan Goldfajn also spoke.
He said, “Digitisation is a key pillar in IDB’s group’s vision and priority. It is the heart of our ability to provide better services, improve business environment and become more effective and efficient. Now we are using digitisation and intelligience to save lives and to make the lives of people better.”
Sinanan added that the ministry had other projects planned but could not give a timeline for them.
