First highway traffic management system ordered

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI) of Japan has received an order for a highway traffic management system (HTMS) for Sri Lanka. The system will be Sri Lanka's very first, and will also be MHI's first installation of the company's full-scale traffic management system for expressways. The system on order is slated to go on stream by the end of 2014.

MHI's electronic road pricing system operating in Singapore since 1998

The HTMS will be installed on Sri Lanka's Southern Expressway between Colombo, the capital, and Galle, a distance of 95 kilometres.

Construction work will be performed under a grant-in-aid provided by the Japanese Government. Based on a package agreement with the Sri Lankan authority placing the order - the Road Development Authority (RDA) - MHI will handle all aspects from engineering, procurement and installation to adjustment and training.

The company will provide 24 variable message signboards, vehicle detection cameras, weather sensors and other roadside equipment, as well as the central computer systems for data processing and operating status monitoring.

The Southern Expressway opened in November 2011 and will eventually be connected into neighbouring expressways. In addition, further expressway construction is currently under way in Sri Lanka in preparation for an anticipated dramatic increase in vehicle traffic in the coming years.

In light of these circumstances, the RDA decided to promote the development of an intelligent transportation system (ITS) so as to provide expressway users with timely traffic information during rainy weather and when accidents occur, in a quest to prevent congestion and secondary damage and ensure safe, smooth high-speed road traffic. MHI is currently amassing a solid record, both in Japan and abroad, as a leading manufacturer of toll collection systems, including electronic toll collection (ETC) systems for expressways and parking lots.

Today the company is applying the technologies and experience cultivated through these operations to aggressive initiatives in the ITS field, the social infrastructure of the next generation.

Leveraging this first order for a highway traffic management system, going forward, MHI intends to focus efforts into sales expansion in overseas markets through proposals of traffic management system specifications and functions best suited to the situations of the emerging economies.

-JCN Newswire