1. Team :
Varun Singhal, Samrat Priyadarshi, Aditya Mulampally, Sarthak Srivastava, Prateek Srivastava
Ensuring World Class Civic Amenities in
Urban India
Manthan Theme : FUTURE CITIES

2. Challenges to Urbanization : Problems being faced:
1. Large scale influx of migrants from rural and
urban areas.
• 30 people migrate from rural areas to urban
areas every minute.
Inference: Proper civic amenities in rural areas
are not available.
2. Dearth of clean drinking water
• Out of 423 cities only 39 receive water that
passes all three quality tests - turbidity,
residual chlorine and Thermo Tolerant Coli
form bacteria (TTC).
Inference: Water management is in shatters.
3. Improper waste management
• Bengaluru generates 5000 tonnes of waste
daily. But only a fraction of waste is treated
before disposal.
(SOURCE: Economic Affairs Department 2009)
Inference: Even the cosmopolitan cities do not
possess the sufficient infrastructure to treat
waste generated.
4. Traffic Jams
• More or less every grown city faces this issue
leading to wastage of time and money.
Inference: Insufficient infrastructure, thus
present road space has to be managed in a
smarter way.

3. Through an
intelligent network
of sensors and
computers traffic
can be more
effectively managed
In majority of
Indian cities the
effective width of
roads is greatly
reduced by
hawkers who
occupy the
sideways
Every
monsoon
Mumbai
experiences
heavy jams due
to choked
drains
Lack of sufficient public
transport forces people
to use their own vehicles
adding to the traffic
congestion
The most pressing problem is “traffic jams” that is seriously denting our nation’s
productivity
Causes
Inadequate
public
transport
Illegal
occupation of
roads by
hawkers
Absence of a
real time traffic
monitoring
system
Absence of a
proper drainage
system to
prevent water
logging
• In Delhi traffic jams consume a massive 90 minutes of
commuter time every day and about Rs 10 crore worth of fuel.
• As there is a 15% government subsidy on petrol and diesel,
the waste results in a subsidy loss of about Rs 1.5 crore for the
state exchequer daily . Src : CTI(Centre for Transforming India)
Reason for selecting traffic jams as
the primary cause
• Traffic reduces regional economic
health.
• Precious fossil fuels are wasted .
• Leads to noise as well as air
pollution.
• Greater chances of collisions due
to constant starting and stopping
of vehicle.
• Hampering the emergency
services like 108 service , fire
fighting services.
• Leads to road rage - in which due
to traffic congestion the driver
may loose his cool and verbally
assault fellow drivers over petty
issues leading to a quarrel that
would further disintegrate the
situation.

4. Snapshot of the solution :
Control booth
and
microprocessor
The
microprocessor
processes the
signals received
from sensor
beneath the
road and
informs the
person at
control hub to
shift the divider
This board
alerts the
commuters
5min before the
commencement
of shifting the
divider
Introduction
We can’t construct
flyovers,
underpasses and
metros
everywhere and
our landmass is
also limited .
Hence we have
devised a solution
that uses our
existing landmass
more effectively
Solution
You must have
observed that
sometimes a given
lane is jam packed
whereas the
adjacent lane has
comparatively less
traffic. Using the
moving divider
concept we can
move the divider
towards the less
traffic lane so that
width of jam
packed lane
increases
temporarily.
DIVIDER
SHIFTING
DIVIDER
SHIFTING
DIVIDER
SHIFTING
DIVIDER
SHIFTING
D
I
V
I
D
E
R
S
H
I
F
T
I
N
G

5. Flow chart depicting the concept
AMOUNT
OF TRAFFIC
ENTERING
NO. OF SENSORS
DETECTED
Sl > 70 &&
Sr > 70
SEND
INFO. TO
BOOTH
RETURN TO 0
Sr > 70
SENSORSMICROPROCESSO
R BOOTH
ALERT
DIVIDER MOVED TOWARDS
Sl
DELAY FUNCTION
(5 SEC.)
Sl > 70
DIVIDER MOVED TOWARDS
SR
SENSORSMICROPROCESSO
R BOOTH
ALERT
DELAY FUNCTION
(5 SEC.)
*SLNO OF SENSORS ACTIVE AT LEFT *SRNO OF SENSORS ACTIVE AT RIGHT *0 POSITIONORIGNAL POSITION OF DIVIDER

6. How our solution is economical, efficient as compared to existing
alternatives ?
Economically efficient and viable
Our model does not require construction of any megastructure like
flyovers, underpass that require large amount of capital, thus it will not
burden our strained economy.
Takes less time for construction
It requires very short time for construction thus it does not create any
traffic jams during construction process and contrary to the
construction of existing mega structures that require a large amount of
time.
Can be easily implemented
The implementation of this concept is relatively easy and does not
require use of any heavy duty machines and costly resources thereby
minimizing the construction cost.
Traffic easing structures like flyovers cannot be constructed
everywhere but this model can be implemented in majority of the
areas .
High Sustainability
Noise and dust pollution during the construction process is almost
negligible . The existing green cover along the road is not affected .Thus
our solution is highly sustainable and environment friendly.
The perfect
solution

7. The divider will be hollow
and made up of poly
carbonate plastic as it is both
strong and light weight, thus
the divider can be moved
easily.
Requirements : poly
carbonate plastic sheet for
0.5 km divider.
How to implement this solution ?
First we have to identify the traffic hotspots in the city which will not be more than 10 per city
approximately, then following components are required to make this work.
They become active upon
application of pressure, so let us
assume in a jam packed lane
which consists of 100 sensors, 70
become active this becomes a
command for the microcontroller
to advice the operator to shift the
divider.
Requirements :100 sensors for 0.5
km.
This place will house the
RTO operator and the
microprocessor. All the
sensors will feed their input
to this microprocessor and it
will also contain the controls
for divider shifting
Requirements : one control
booth per traffic hotspot.
Moving divider Pressure sensors Control booth

8. The entire divider will rest on some
supports. The ends of these supports
will be fitted with motors and will be
placed inside the groove. These
grooves will ensure a single path of
motion and prevent external causes of
motion. The control of these motors
will lie with the operator.
Requirements : 4 motors with good
power rating and low rpm,
underground wires for power as well
as connection to control booth.
Two LED display screens will be
placed at the ends of the divider.
This board will be connected to
the micro controller of the control
booth and 5 minutes before the
commencement of divider
shifting, the screen will flash an
alert message that the divider is
shifting.
Requirements : 2 giant led display
boards.
Road markers are going to
be place for the safety of
the commuters during the
night.
They provide the visual
confirmation to the driver
that the divider is shifting.
Requirements:
Conventional reflecting
traffic markers.
Divider moving mechanism LED boards Alert System Road markers

9. Estimation of amount of Human and Financial resources required
For 0.5 km
Total
cost
Technology
cost
Organizational
cost
One time
investment Divider moving
mechanism
Poly carbonate
plastic for divider
A trained RTO
personnel
Software
cost
Hardware
cost Microcontroller
Pressure sensors
Design of algorithm
and program
Rs. 5000
Rs.
1,80,000
P.A
Rs. 3.1
crore
Rs.10
Lakh

10. Impact and Reach of our solution
ImpactThis model when implemented may provide
a good mechanism for preventing collisions
that occur due to the constant stopping and
going of vehicles .
Our model reduces traffic and ensures uninterrupted commutation.
We envisage that our model would at least reduce traffic by 20%.
As the commutation time is reduced, people
arrive with a good spirit to their workplaces, this
increasing their productivity moreover the freight
time for goods is also reduced which in turn
strengthens our economy.
Monitoring mechanisms
• Tester circuits can be used as monitoring mechanisms
to ensure the proper functioning of the various
electronic components tin our system.
• In our case tester circuits will be placed at the control
booths for ensuring proper functioning of
microprocessor , sensors and divider moving motor.
Scalability
• Our model has a lot of potential for further
improvement.
• With more R & D the timing of divider shift can be
synchronized with the traffic signal.
• Then our concept can be implemented in entire city.
According to a report by CTI approx. 16000 litres of fuel is wasted everyday due
to traffic jams in India, the prices of petrol and diesel are increasing at an
unprecedented rate ,thus by this model we can save a large amount of the
fuel from getting wasted and achieve sustainability.
Accidents
Minimizes fuel wastage
Increases Productivity
Traffic reduction

11. Our concept faces some critical challenges which have to be addressed
• It would be difficult for commuters to adapt
to this new system.
• The position of control booth has to be
decided carefully so that the operator has a
large LOS and can take correct decision.
• Street lights cannot be constructed on the
shifting divider.
• Include an additional training session during
the license issue process in which commuters
are trained for this new system.
• The control booth should be constructed at an
elevated position so that he can over watch
the entire traffic.
• The street lights should be constructed on the
sides of road and have should have high
wattage.
Challenges Possible Solutions
• Drivers from rural areas may not be
familiar with the system due to lack of
traffic sense.
• The timing of the divider shifting has to be
synced with the traffic signals so that a red
light doesn’t create traffic on the empty
lane.
Conceptual challenge
Implementation challenge
The LED boards will flash alerts both in native
and Hindi languages taking care of rural
commuters .
More R & D is required to sync divider shift
timing with traffic signals.
Solution to conceptual problems
Solution to implementation problem

12. Appendix
All of our above stated statistics have been taken from the following:
• McKinsey Global Institute report “India’s Urban awakening: Building Inclusive
Cities, Sustaining Economic Growth”, April 2010.
• Strategic Plan Of Ministry of Urban Development for 2011-2016, Government
of India.
• http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-10-
15/delhi/28076157_1_mb-road-jams-stretches ( CTI Report)
• A report by : Economic Affairs Department 2009
THANK YOU
Team Abhigyan