Skip to main content

IRF Geneva steering the working groups of the National ITS Committee in India

Following the establishment of a National Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Committee by NITI Aayog, three working groups (WGs) have been created with the mission to formulate policy recommendations on education, legal aspects and innovation. IRF has entered into a Statement of Intent (SOI) with NITI Aayog, Govt of India, to work towards a coherent national ITS policy and is accordingly now chairing the work of the three WGs. Eight pillars of priority action have now been identified and ongoing pilots
September 28, 2018 Read time: 4 mins
Following the establishment of a National Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Committee by NITI Aayog, three working groups (WGs) have been created with the mission to formulate policy recommendations on education, legal aspects and innovation. 1201 IRF Geneva has entered into a Statement of Intent (SOI) with NITI Aayog, Govt of India, to work towards a coherent national ITS policy and is accordingly now chairing the work of the three WGs. Eight pillars of priority action have now been identified and ongoing pilots in the country are being reviewed.


Each working group is chaired by Shri Balraj Bhanot, advisor to International Road Federation (Geneva & India) and executive director ARAI. The first meeting of the ITS National Committee took place on 23rd March 2018 and the following tasks were assigned to three Working Groups:

WG 1 – ITS Capacity-Building and Awareness

• Sound analysis of the actual situation in the country at all levels and suggest corrective measures
• Provide recommendations for the development of an integrated curriculum for ITS at academic level
• Provide recommendations for the creation of continuous professional training programmes
• Provide recommendations for the development of awareness/education campaigns

WG 2 – ITS Institutional and Regulatory Frameworks
• Develop a roadmap for creating an appropriate institutional set-up and regulatory framework for ITS deployment and uptake in identified areas
• Identify priority areas of regulatory intervention that could help unlock the potential of ITS and deliver quick wins in areas defined

WG 3 – ITS Standards, Security and Innovation
• Identify areas for standardisation, security and draw a roadmap with BIS, DoT (TEC, TSDSI & CDoT) (collaboration with WG2)
• Provide recommendations on how to foster the dialogue and collaboration between the private and the public sector
to boost innovation and R&D in the country

The 3 WGs have already met twice over the past months and eight pillars of priority areas of activities have been identified for an initial focus. A review of pilots in the country is currently being carried out.

Making urban streets safe: new training course

We depend on mobility systems every day. Streets need not be a place where we put our lives and those of our loved ones at risk.

More than 1.25 million people are killed on roads each year, the majority in developing countries, making traffic fatalities a leading cause of death worldwide. Children, elderly and poor people are particularly vulnerable. Are drivers and pedestrians always to blame? Recent research from WRI Ross Centre for Sustainable Cities and the Global Road Safety Facility of the World Bank finds that the most effective way to prevent traffic deaths is a systemic approach that shifts responsibility away from the drivers and pedestrians using roads and places it on the city planners and officials designing them. Analysis conducted in 53 countries found that those that have taken a “Safe System” based approach have achieved both the lowest rates of fatalities/100,000 inhabitants and the greatest reduction in fatality levels over the past 20 years. IRF (Geneva) together with Qatar Transportation & Traffic Safety Centre and Qatar University are pleased to present a new international training course addressing specifically Safe Urban Street Design for Vulnerable Road Users. The course will be held from 4th to 6th December 2018 in Doha – Qatar.

The course provides guidance to all stakeholders involved in transport decisions: from government officials planning transport systems, to community groups concerned about safety, and businesses. The course will provide concrete suggestions on how to develop context-specific and Safe System-based road safety interventions in an urban environment. The international road safety experts delivering the course will analyse and discuss with the participants the reasons why vulnerable road users are involved in impacts that result in fatalities and serious injuries. It will also highlight the preventive and corrective actions - including education, enforcement and engineering measures - that can be put in place to prevent injury and fatalities.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • IRF Geneva highlights making roads safe: a priority for all
    May 15, 2014
    IRF Geneva’s Susanna Zammataro highlights the importance of the Federation’s ongoing commitment to the work of the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration, with which she serves as co-chair of the project group dedicated to Safer Roads and Mobility On 10th April, the United Nations General Assembly was due to discuss a new global road safety resolution. For those who might dismiss this as just another piece of paper condemned to sit on government shelves and gather dust, this a reminder of a few facts
  • Safe Roads Safe Kids Project: delivering a safe journey to school
    October 15, 2018
    Every year 186,300 children die from road traffic crashes around the world. That is more than 500 children every day. Road traffic injury ranks among the top four causes of death for all children over the age of five years. According to data reported by the Moroccan Comité national de prévention des accidents de la circulation (CNPAC), young people below the age of 14 represent 15% of all the deaths on Moroccan roads and the majority of these are pedestrians. Many of these fatalities are amongst children
  • SaferAfrica Project discusses Data Collection in Africa at workshop event
    July 9, 2018
    Members of the consortium of the EU-funded SaferAfrica project met in Athens on 24-27 April 2018 to discuss advancements and to present first results to the management board. IRF (Geneva) is a member of the consortium and shared its experience on data collection during the dedicated workshop held jointly with the management board. Representatives from the African Development Bank, UNECA, SSATP/World Bank, FIA, WHO, IRTAD, RU and PIARC were also present to address the issue of data in Africa and the specific
  • Tackling Indian road safety
    December 5, 2012
    India’s road safety record is the world’s worst but there are plans to tackle the problems. Patrick Smith reports from New Delhi. A speeded up video of a short section of road in the Indian capital Delhi was followed by a question. “How many infringements did you count in that 25-second clip on a typical day in Delhi,” asked Dr Rohit Baluja, a question that brought understandable silence. It equated to hundreds of millions of infringements each year, said Dr Baluja, president, Institute of Road Traffic Educ