Skip to main content

Kuala Lumpur replaces obsolete traffic management system

With its integrated transport information system (ITIS) in ruins and waiting to be sold for salvage, Kuala Lumpur’s government has awarded a contract to improve its traffic management. GTC Global won the US$62 million contract last year to bring ITIS back on track. The company was recently acquired by Telekom Malaysia. In 2002, a traffic surveillance system costing more than US$93 million was launched to gather, process and supply real-time traffic information to reduce congestion in Kuala Lumpur. It we
April 9, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
With its integrated transport information system (ITIS) in ruins and waiting to be sold for salvage, Kuala Lumpur’s government has awarded a contract to improve its traffic management.  GTC Global won the US$62 million contract last year to bring ITIS back on track. The company was recently acquired by Telekom Malaysia.

In 2002, a traffic surveillance system costing more than US$93 million was launched to gather, process and supply real-time traffic information to reduce congestion in Kuala Lumpur. It went live in 2005 and less than two years later became a target for vandals and its technology soon became obsolete.

When Kuala Lumpur mayor Datuk Seri Ahmad Phesal Talib took office 18 months ago, the system was performing at 60 per cent capacity. He has guaranteed that the new system will be more cost-effective, efficient and able to keep pace with rapidly changing technological advances.

“We are confident of Telekom’s ability to handle this project, but this time, we are doing it differently. Instead of managing the system, we will lease the necessary equipment to them so that their contractor takes the risk,’’ said Ahmad Phesal.  “We expect ITIS to be fully restored by the middle of the year. We have finished installing 90 per cent of the CCTV units in the city to ensure public safety and the 140 variable message signs (VMS) are currently being installed and will be fully operational soon.”

ITIS is a federal government project developed by ITS Konsortium intended to solve Kuala Lumpur’s traffic congestion problem. The traffic management centre (TMC) links the system’s two main components, the advanced traffic management system (ATMS) and the advanced traveller information system (ATIS).  The system also includes 140 VMS, 255 CCTV and automatic incident detection. Traffic signals are linked to the TMC but are controlled separately.

Related Content

  • New York's award-winning traffic control system
    February 28, 2013
    A comprehensive ITS strategy in New York built on a system of key building blocks has been crowned with an IRF award for the city’s Midtown in Motion adaptive control system. Jon Masters reviews New York’s ITS modernisation plan as the city looks to the next phase of expansion. In January this year the International Road Federation (IRF) presented TransCore and the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) with the IRF Global Road Achievement Award. This was for deployment of New York’s Midtown in
  • Good news for the ITS industry from new $105 billion US transportation reauthorisation bill
    July 11, 2012
    ITS America has applauded approval by the US House of Representatives and the US Senate of the conference report to HR 4348, (here’s the link Joseph: http://www.rules.house.gov/Media/file/PDF_112_2/LegislativeText/CRPT-112hrpt-HR4348ih.pdf ) a legislative package which includes the surface transportation reauthoriSation bill. The bill passed the House by a wide margin of 373 – 52, was subsequently approved by the Senate by a 74-19 vote, and the legislation has been signed by the President. The legislation w
  • Green requirements of traffic video systems
    February 2, 2012
    Traficon's Head of Product and Application Management Robin Collaert offers up a discussion of the likely future green requirements of traffic video systems. At the most basic levels, ITS has the potential to significantly reduce the amounts of time which vehicles spend waiting at intersections, and less time spent waiting means less in the way of vehicular emissions. All of that will hardly come as news to most laypeople, let alone transport professionals. However, the reality is that even today too many r
  • Riyadh opts for TransCore traffic management system
    February 25, 2015
    TransCore has expanded its presence in the Middle East with a contract worth US$100 million to provide the Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA) of Saudi Arabia with an advanced traffic management system to improve the flow of traffic for the seven million people living in Riyadh. TransCore will deploy its TransSuite software solution to manage traffic signal operations at 350 of the city’s busiest intersections. The system automatically adjusts traffic signal timing in response to real-time traffic conditio