The broad agreement between the key stakeholders is that the traffic police department will facilitate the tower installation in congested junctions, Airtel will map the traffic patterns, and Mapunity processes the data to turn it into readable traffic information for the end user.

"We all had a congruent interest," says Mahesh. "For any telecom service provider, congestion means a drop off. Airtel wanted the network to reach into congested areas, too. They were interested in serving people in junctions where congestion typically takes place. They were coming up with micro-towers, which will have a limited footprint, serving only people in that limited area of the junction. It would not be handled by the overlying BTF layer that would otherwise handle telecom traffic. So, Airtel wanted a solution for call drops at intersections; the traffic police only needed to map people at the intersection; we could use these micro-towers to get our data," he explains.

The Web site was launched on June 1 this year, and carries detailed traffic and movement coverage for the eastern and southern parts of the city. In the next phase, they plan to extend the service to Bangalore North and West. Other services include safety instructions, information on roads and diversions in the city, level-of-service mapping, passenger information system, origin-destination studies and route optimization, among others. The service will remain free for a few weeks before becoming a paid service, paving the way for a strong revenue model for the Web site.

Two weeks into its operation, the Web site is getting about 4,000 requests on SMS every day. The numbers seem to be growing by about 5% everyday. The site has been getting another 2,000 people, some of whom inquire about new services. "The carpool service, for instance, is not operational. Yet, a few dozen have called in and shown interest in being notified when the carpool service begins," he says.

The long horizon

The biggest takeaway of the traffic information system has been the data on commuting patterns. Earlier, it could take months to do a physical survey of a few thousand households in a locality to study their commuting patterns. On the other hand, with cell phone signals, Mahesh says, "I can give you data about a million and a half households by tomorrow morning." By mapping movements onto a network and a dynamic capture system, transport planning has become not just faster, but more flexible.

"Cell phone signals provide very easy data feed. Companies can also use this data to ascertain major populated areas, work locations, heavy traffic roads, buses and other modes of transport," notes Mahesh.

Reddi says there is a larger purpose behind the whole exercise. "The traffic police department has two major advantages from this project. First of all, with this data, congestion mapping will be at the fingertips of our traffic personnel and every cop will have information of sensitive areas. So, regulation can be easy. This database will help us identify problem areas without waiting for human intervention. Secondly, this is a step toward setting up a traffic management center in a few months in Bangalore," he explains.

The center will consist of a large number of cameras feeding a large media wall for constant real-time monitoring as well as analysis of the information coming in. BTIS will be an important source of this information. It will feature a help line, live video streams and call-in information from users. An accident detection system is also on the anvil. "All of this will be integrated into the traffic management center. This will give us ample information to asses a situation. Then, we can take subjective field action. This will also ensure a transparent traffic control system," says Reddi.

"Besides, the advantage of using cell phone data to trace density of traffic is that information based on this can give out very good OD (origin density) statistics, telling us where the traffic is originating, which direction it is moving and the accurate congestion situation," he adds.

Insofar as the spatial locations, there are about 1,200 locations in the database, monitoring about 200 junctions using Airtel's micro-towers. In time, people will be allowed to customize these locations, identifying them with keywords like 'home' and 'office'. The carpool will also have a group messaging platform that makes it possible to query many pool partners at the same time, thereby increasing the likelihood that at least one of them will be able to share on a given day.

The BTIS initiative has called for tremendous man-hours in terms of investment, asserts Mahesh. "We put in about six to eight months into this project. The traffic police personnel also invested a good amount of time and effort -- there were eight constables and five ACPs who were working on this, in addition to their regular duties. Toward the end of the project, Airtel put in about US$24,456 for the final expenditures. So, I think the investment in this project is more in terms of effort than money," he explains. It's what Mahesh deems a social entrepreneurship project.

For Reddi, the initiative is another step in the direction of tech-enabling the Bangalore traffic police. It's a bid to systematize what otherwise translates to complete chaos on the roads of Bangalore, especially at peak hours. In a few months, when the traffic management center is up and running, Bangalore and its harried commuters should get some relief -- or, at the very least, there will be a method to the madness they encounter.