Blog

India is building roads at a record rate. In fact, the country’s national highway network will grow by 37% in the next two years, according to a recent statement by Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways.

However, every year, 1.5 lakh lives are also lost on India’s roads.

Launched in 2021, Project iRASTE (intelligent Solutions for Road Safety through Technology and Engineering) is a first-of-its-kind global initiative to upgrade the 4E framework for Road Safety leveraging AI and Data Analytics.

The 4E’s of Road Safety refer to Engineering, Education, Enforcement, and Emergency Care.

Project iRASTE, a unique collaborative initiative between government, industry, and academia towards advancing road safety, has been deployed in Nagpur and Telangana. Leveraging the power of AI, this pivotal project is orchestrating a decline in road accidents and creating a blueprint to Vision Zero with regards to road safety for the country.

“Project iRASTE is an inspiring example of multi-institutional collaboration between academia, industry, and government that can be executed at scale, to improve road safety outcomes for the country. We are proud to be a part of a project that is reimagining Road Safety for India with the predictive power of AI,” said Prof Manoranjan Parida, Director, CSIR-Central Road Research Institute, Delhi.

New-age tech to accelerate 4Es of road safety

Redefining road safety with an innovative and holistic framework, Project iRASTE focuses on the four Es of road safety i.e. Engineering, Education, Enforcement, and Emergency Care. It also works with three key vectors, namely vehicle safety, mobility analysis, and road infrastructure safety.

Defensive driving by drivers of large commercial vehicles can reduce risk for vulnerable road users. This is enabled by a combination of AI-based ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) and DMS (Driver Monitoring System) devices on large government fleets. ADAS and DMS technology predicts road risk and alerts drivers. The project thus replaces classroom training with cabin training for better effectiveness. Finally, Innovative reward programmes encourage drivers to remain safe on the road.

Proactive identification of infrastructure risk is a challenge today. As part of the mobility analysis vector, the team continuously monitors dynamic risks of the entire road network to define greyspots – areas that are high risk or accident prone. This eliminates the need for manual surveys. Preventive maintenance of such stretches will avert blackspots before they claim lives.

Project iRASTE has also delivered DPRs for 38 high-risk blackspots in Nagpur city.

All of these systems converge to make iRASTE an effective solution to improve road safety in India.

On the road to progress already

Having been deployed across 450 buses, iRASTE is now India’s largest study of ADAS for commercial vehicles – the findings of which will be among the key insights showcased at the conference.

The project’s pioneering work is already showing results, with over 1,100 drivers trained in defensive driving and ADAS, with a risk score available for every driver monthly. Remarkably, the implementation has already seen 30% reduction in accident risk of drivers in NMC’s ADAS-fitted buses and around 20% lower accidents involving NMC buses within city routes since June 2022.

The Greyspot Map predicts road risk by analysing ADAS alerts from the ADAS-fitted government fleet. It offers an economical way to enhance safety of both fleets and road infrastructure. The greyspot model can report active blackspots, potential blackspots, and even improved spots. As a result, it now takes just three months to predict infrastructure risk with zero need for manual inspections, a huge improvement from the earlier process of manual inspections and data analysis that could take up to three years to report a blackspot.

iRASTE is also pioneering an ADAS + DMS approach on highways in Telangana to give additional insights on near-miss accidents to fleet managers for remedial action.

“Technologies such as AI are playing a transformational role in enabling smarter and safer vehicles, roads, and drivers. Our analysis shows that 66% reduction in road crashes and 40% reduction in fatalities can be achieved by implementing all recommendations from Project iRASTE. Going forward, we hope to experience the transformative effects of this innovation – not just in Nagpur and Telangana, but across the whole of India,” said Varma Konala, CEO, INAI.

The iRASTE NXT Conference agenda

The iRASTE NXT Conference is scheduled to take place at CSIR IGIB Auditorium, Mathura Road, New Delhi, on July 24, 2023, from 10 am onwards.

It will bring together industry, state, and academia leaders to showcase multiple projects that are using a holistic approach to advance road safety goals, and more. These include Project iRASTE’s pioneering integrated approach to road safety, including ADAS, driver training, road engineering, AI-based greyspots, citizen awareness, and continuous monitoring.

The conference will also spotlight key learnings and results from iRASTE consortium partners in addition to marquee presentations on notable projects around the world. Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways is expected to address the event.

Specially curated keynotes, round tables, and panel discussions with experts from relevant standards organisations will help show the way forward on turning learnings into policy recommendations, and a scalable blueprint that can push for rapid adoption across the country.

Beyond road safety, the conference will focus on building foundational AI technologies that catalyse the creation of solutions at a population scale.

Be a part of India’s premier technology for road safety conference

As India’s premier tech for road safety conference, iRASTE NXT will be the biggest gathering of policymakers, technologists, mentors, and business leaders who will deliberate, deep-dive, and decode the road ahead to reducing accidents with the power of AI.

As an attendee, you will get a ringside view of the latest innovations from the mobility and road safety tech ecosystem, insights from innovators and industry pioneers, and the opportunity to network and engage with the best in the ecosystem.