Federal Minister for Communications, Mr Shahid Ashraf Tarar, has said that the Intelligent Transport System (ITS) is in dire need of the hour for better and informed decision-making and creating ease for commuters. National Highway Authority, along with the National Highways and Motorway Police and the Ministry of Communications, is collaborating to bring the best of the services and management to ensure safe and sound travelling on motorways and the national highways network. He was speaking during his visit to the National Traffic Operations Center today, where a detailed briefing was given to him on the functioning of the centre and installation of ITS all along an entire network of the National Highway Authority. Senior officers of the Ministry of Communications, National Highway Authority, National Highways and Motorway Police and National Traffic Operations Center were also present.

Mr. Shahid Ashraf Tarar said NHA is looking forward to using this technology on its road network to improve different functions. NHA is also developing architecture and standards for ITS for standardization with the cooperation of the National Highways and Motorway Police and the National Transport Research Center. It was told in the briefing that ITS is a solution consisting of electronics, computers and a communication network deployed on a road network, generating a wide range of engineering data to enhance safety, efficiency, management and other functions with reference to the road network. Presently, NHA has installed systems on a few motorways, including BOT projects, and intends to adopt the same technology on other motorways. The upcoming projects will also have the ITS as a part of the project scope. It was further told that live data is being collected from five motorways fourteen national highways and operational weigh stations. Assisting systems have also been developed for monitoring of the bandwidth, gadget working status and power status. The data collected is being shared for analysis and input as per their data needs, which include Engineering sections, Design, HRTC and RAMD, besides revenue potentials, working out bid estimates, operations and claim cases, etc.