On May 16th, 2024, the iRASTE team held an event iRASTE #RoadAhead at Raddison Blu hotel in Nagpur to reflect on the journey of the project, mark its conclusion and thank the project partners and stakeholders.
Our key project partner CSIR-CRRI was represented by Prof. Manoranjan Parida, Dr. Velmurugan, Dr. K. Ravinder, Dr. Mukti Advani, Dr. Mohan Rao, and Dr. Kamini Gupta. Core team members Juby Jose and Dr. Anbumani Subramaniam from Intel joined us from Bengaluru. Transport and Public Works Departments at Nagpur Municipal Corporation were represented by Shri Ravindra Bundhade, Executive Engineer (Civil), Shri Mahesh Dhamecha, Transport Manager, Shri Ravindra Page, Administrative Officer, Rajiv Gaikwad, Chief Engineer, Public Works Department, and Mr. Yogesh Lunge, Technical Supervisor (Transport). Raju Wagh, his colleagues, and volunteers at RoadMarc Foundation also took part in the event.
Varma S. Konala, CEO, INAI set the stage by sharing the project’s background, key milestones that the team had achieved since its launch in Sept 2021, and the lessons learnt along the way.
Prof. Parida shared the technical aspects of the intervention and illuminated the audience on the potential for using ADAS technologies in all 100 Smart cities and other cities in the country. He then invited representatives from all the three operators associated with NMC. Adit Chhajed from Hansa Travels, Neelmani Gupta from RK Travels, and Sumit Vaidya from Time Travels shared their experience working with the project team to support and monitor the ADAS devices installed on their buses.
Mr. Rajiv Gaikwad also shared NMC’s perspective on the value this intervention has created for the drivers and their immense satisfaction with the project’s outcomes.
A team of volunteers from RoadMarc delivered a street play performance to emphasize the need to educate the public at large so that they shift their behavior and become more careful and sensitive while navigating the streets and roads in the city. Dressed in bright religious attire, the group enthralled the audience by communicating sharp messages about how negligent behavior, mobile distractions, and preoccupation with social media has diminished the sense of initiative and responsibility among the youth.
Sameer Gautam, CEO, Traffic Rewards, discussed the impact of their RFID product bases on positive reinforcement has delivered results under the intervention piloted under the project’s engineering vector. Prof. P.K. Sikdar made concluding remarks on the promise of ADAS and related AI technologies for data collection in the Indian context.
Nirmal Parmar delivered the vote of thanks to conclude the ceremony.
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