Chennai: The Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Renault Nissan Technology and Business Centre India Private Limited (RNTBCI) to reduce road accidents fatalities in Chennai and neighbouring districts through two projects.
This initiative is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), a release from IIT-M said.
The Connected Intelligent Urban Transportation lab at IIT Madras will develop innovative, technology and data-driven solutions to improve road safety.
Lauding this initiative towards public safety and saving lives, IIT-M Director Prof V Kamakoti said this initiative will surely reap benefits in terms of road safety and other technological interventions for the transportation sector at large.
This project will lead to generate data which will help to enhance road safety.
The findings from this project will pave way for new technologies that will further enhance entrepreneurship ideas, he said.
A year-long hackathon named āHackcidentsā will be conducted and the best ideas on Road Safety and Accident Prevention will be implemented.
The Centre For Innovation, a voluntary student body at IIT Madras, will conduct the hackathon.
The first projectās aim is to improve public safety with a particular focus on reducing fatal accidents involving public transit buses in Chennai.
Among the fatal accidents in Chennai in 2019, over 10 per cent were caused by buses. This fraction is twice the number reported across the country.
Over 80 fatalities involved public transit buses in 2019. Further, close to 100 accidents resulted in grievous injuries. Besides the burden on the public transit agency in the form of a high pay out against claims, these accidents have large social costs.
The IIT Madras project proposes the use of state-of-the-art sensors and data collection techniques for better understanding the root causes leading to bus accidents and propose innovative ways to significantly reduce them.
The second project under this Initiative will focus on using low-cost innovative technology to prevent accidents in Chennai, Kanchipuram, Tiruvallur and Chengalpattu districts.