Vizag’s ₹99-cr AI traffic push: Project SARTHI gets AP nod
The Andhra Pradesh government has sanctioned ₹99.19 crore for the implementation of Project SARTHI, an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS), across the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) area to improve road safety, strengthen traffic enforcement and ease congestion.
The project will cover 101 traffic junctions and deploy a range of AI-enabled technologies, including Adaptive Traffic Control Systems (ATCS), automated number plate recognition, facial recognition, red-light and helmet violation detection, wrong-way driving detection, non-standard number plate identification, free-flow traffic monitoring and smart pedestrian signals.
According to officials, ATCS will be installed at all 101 junctions, while automated traffic violation detection systems will be set up at 90 junctions. Free-flow traffic monitoring will cover 131.8 km of major road corridors, facial recognition systems will be deployed at 12 locations, and smart pedestrian signals will be introduced at five key intersections.
The network will be integrated with the City Operations Centre and the Police Command Control Centre, enabling real-time traffic monitoring, enforcement and data-driven traffic management.
The State government will contribute ₹49.54 crore towards the project, while GVMC will provide the remaining ₹49.65 crore, including maintenance costs, through its own revenues and e-challan collections. The Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Region Development Authority (VMRDA) will separately contribute ₹20 crore to support the initiative.
To oversee implementation, the government has constituted a district-level committee headed by the District Collector. The committee, comprising representatives from GVMC, the Traffic Police, the Transport Department and APSRTC, will review project progress every quarter.
Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister P. Narayana said Project SARTHI would help improve traffic discipline, reduce congestion and make daily commuting safer and more predictable for citizens.
Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration and Urban Development, S. Suresh Kumar said the AI-enabled system would facilitate detection of violations such as red-light jumping, helmetless riding, triple riding, wrong-way driving, vehicle overloading and use of non-standard number plates. He said the smart pedestrian signalling system would improve safety for senior citizens, children and differently-abled persons at busy intersections.