IIT-M launches new location intelligence platform for Haryana

CHENNAI: The Indian Institute of Technology Madras' (IIT-M) Centre of Excellence for Road Safety (CoERS) recently launched a new location intelligence platform called 'Sanjaya' in Haryana.

"Sanjaya will provide a single platform to visualise crash black spots, and emerging black spots for stakeholders to determine what type of interventions are needed and where they are needed. In addition, tools to perform kilometre analysis, corridor analysis, cluster analysis and point radius analysis with visualisations as heatmaps/ trend patterns are included in the platform, " said a release from IIT-Madras.

"It will help the road-owning agencies, law enforcement, emergency care providers and other road safety stakeholders to visualise the high frequency accident zone data for planning targeted interventions in Haryana, " it added.

Commending the initiative, Sanjeev Kaushal, chief secretary of Haryana said, "Sanjaya is an important tool designed to provide nuanced insights and targeted strategies towards making roads safer. We will also direct our attention to the regions that are witnessing higher crash rates and Sanjaya will help find out those critical hotspots."

India currently has the highest number of road crashes and fatalities in the world.

Crash data from 2022 published by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) attributes that nearly 60% of fatalities took place on 5% of the roads (National and State Highways) in India.

The working age group of 18 to 60 accounts for 83.4% of total road crash fatalities in the country, which has serious implications on the emotional and psychological impact on family and society at large and imposes significant socioeconomic costs on the nation.