The State government has accorded administrative sanction for implementation of Project SARTHI – Systematic Augmented Radial Traffic and Hoop Induction in the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) limits, at an overall project cost of ₹99.19 crore. The project will introduce an integrated Artificial Intelligence-based Intelligent Traffic Management System across 101 traffic junctions in the city.

Under the project, the GVMC will implement AI-based traffic management and enforcement systems covering Adaptive Traffic Control Systems, red-light violation detection, automatic number plate recognition, helmet and triple-riding detection, wrong-way driving detection, non-standard number plate identification, free-flow traffic monitoring, facial recognition at selected strategic locations, pedestrian signals and command-and-control integration.

The project will deploy Adaptive Traffic Control System at 101 junctions, violation detection systems at 90 junctions, free-flow traffic monitoring across 14 locations covering about 131.80 km of major corridors, facial recognition systems at 12 selected locations, pedestrian safety signals at five locations, and integration with the City Operation Centre and Police Command Control infrastructure.

The government order provides for 60% CAPEX support of ₹49.54 crore, while the balance CAPEX and five-year operation and maintenance component of ₹49.65 crore will be paid bi-annually by GVMC from its own funds and revenues generated through e-challans and other notified enforcement collections. The government has also permitted Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Region Development Authority to contribute ₹20 crore towards the project.

A District Level Committee under the chairmanship of the District Collector, has also been constituted to monitor implementation and review the project at least once every quarter. The Committee will include the Commissioner GVMC, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police – Traffic; Deputy Transport Commissioner; Regional Manager, APSRTC; and GVMC project officials.

Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development, P. Narayana stated that Project SARTHI will improve traffic discipline, reduce congestion, enhance road safety and support citizens with smoother and more predictable movement across the city. He stated that the initiative reflects the Government’s commitment to use technology for better urban governance and to make cities more liveable, efficient and investment-friendly.

Principal Secretary, MAUD, S. Suresh Kumar said that SARTHI will help detect and act on violations such as red-light jumping, driving without helmet, triple riding, wrong-way driving, non-standard or missing number plates and overloading of vehicles. The pedestrian signal component will improve safety for walkers, senior citizens, children and differently-abled persons at selected busy crossings through smart activation, audible and visual alerts and integration with the traffic control system.