The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) today launched the Highway Advisory System (HAS) as a pilot project on the Delhi-Jaipur Highway, NH-8, in New Delhi.

The HAS will allow commuters on NH-8 to tune in to live updates on traffic, route and the weather via a free-to-air information distribution system that will be broadcasted on All India Radio. The information will be collected real-time from concessionaires, patrol vehicles, toll plazas and traffic marshals. This information will be transmitted to HAS control centre using mobile applications, telephones and sensors. HAS control centre will collect data, process and analyze it, generate alerts, which will then go on air. Information and alerts will be broadcasted over AIR’s Delhi, Alwar and Jaipur FM stations. Twenty-two bulletins will be issued every day including safety awareness content along with live traffic updates on NH8. 

Speaking on the occasion Nitin Gadkari, union minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping said, “The Government is committed to reduce fatality due to road accidents by 50 percent.  HAS is an aid that will help to achieve this target. By giving information about traffic conditions on the highway, accidents,  weather and meteorological information and information on highway amenities, the system will help to reduce road accidents and also fatality resulting from these accidents, and make travel faster and more convenient. The radio broadcasts will also raise people’s awareness about road safety, which is very necessary for making our highways safe for the commuters.”

The project will be implemented in three phases, the first of which was inaugurated today. By the second phase, the government is expected to augment the broadcast infrastructure to cover the entire stretch of the highway, install sensors to gather additional real time traffic information, broadcast in both analog & digital (simulcast) radio mode. The third phase will see HAS services in only digital broadcasting mode, which will be monitored by third party audits.