CCEA Clears Rs 1,789.52 Crore Traffic System for Delhi

The correct answer is Rs 1,789.52 crore, the estimated cost inclusive of taxes for the project the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs cleared for implementation by Delhi Police. Options A, B and D are wrong because each alters the figure while keeping its shape, a common way of setting a distractor in an examination. The money buys a system that covers 42 identified traffic corridors, with 1,092 Adaptive Traffic Control System installations and 1,029 enforcement locations. Implementation runs in three phases over 24 months and is followed by five years of operation and maintenance, each phase beginning only after the earlier one has been judged against prescribed testing, commissioning, acceptance and performance parameters. Delhi Police will carry out the work through a Master System Integrator selected by competitive bidding.

The correct answer is 42. The project takes in that many identified traffic corridors of the capital. Option A, 24, is wrong because it is the number of months over which the three phases of implementation are spread, not a count of corridors. Option C, 71, is wrong because it belongs to a different fact altogether: Delhi has about 71 lakh active registered vehicles, and it is this growth in vehicles, far ahead of the growth in road space, that the system is meant to cope with. Option D is wrong because no such figure is attached to the approval. Within those corridors the system will set up 1,092 Adaptive Traffic Control System installations and 1,029 enforcement locations, and traffic regulation, enforcement and information will be brought onto a single platform through Traffic Command and Control Centres.

The correct answer is C-DAC. It will provide technical support as Project Management Consultant, which covers technical scrutiny, monitoring, validation and acceptance both while the system is being installed and later during operation and maintenance. Options B, C and D name other well-known public technical bodies and are wrong, because none of them was given this role in the approval. The distinction worth holding on to is between the two agencies in the project: Delhi Police is the implementing force and will get the work done through a Master System Integrator selected by competitive bidding, while C-DAC sits alongside as the consultant that checks the technology. The system itself is to follow open standards and application programming interfaces so that it can be integrated and scaled up later.

The correct answer is 1,092. That is the number of Adaptive Traffic Control System installations the project will put in place. Option A, 1,029, is the trap in this question: it is the number of enforcement locations, a closely similar figure in the same approval, and the two are easily swapped. Options C and D are wrong because neither number belongs to the project. Adaptive control is the heart of the scheme: instead of fixed timings, signals adjust to the traffic of the moment and are coordinated along a corridor, which cuts avoidable stoppages and delays. The enforcement locations do separate work, catching red-light and stop-line offences, speeding, wrong-way driving, helmet and seat-belt violations, illegal parking and mobile phone use at the wheel.