Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad launched the 'M2Smart Project' testbed to develop low-carbon models for Indian transportation. The testbed will generate a practical 'handbook' on low carbon urban transportation for developing countries based on big data of Indian transportation and create traffic flow models from the data analysis.

Presently, the field testbed system has been deployed at IIT-H campus and along a 30 km stretch of NH-65 for analysing many key components of traffic management system such as real-time traffic flow monitoring using cameras and Bluetooth and Wi-Fi sensors, speed detection safety system, conflict warning system using traffic signal lights and remote environment gas sensing. The traffic monitoring is also being done at Ahmedabad, where IIT Hyderabad researchers have established traffic monitoring cameras at one of the major junctions in the city. They are able to monitor and compare the differences between Hyderabad and Ahmedabad traffic conditions in real-time.

Speaking about the importance of this Research, Prof UB Desai, Director, IIT Hyderabad, said, "Reducing carbon footprint is the need of the hour. India has diverse modes of transportation and we need to understand this diverse mobility much better. The testbed under the M2Smart project is aimed at this fundamental objective. With the data that we will acquire using the testbed, we will be able to have a better understanding of multi-modal transportation in India and we will be able to provide solutions to reduce the carbon footprint."

'M2Smart' (Smart Cities for Emerging Countries based on Sensing, Network and Big Data Analysis of Multimodal Regional Transport System) is a joint research project under SATREPS (Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development Program) programme between India and Japan. As many as 14 Professors and 20 Research Scholars from IIT Hyderabad will be working alongside 21 Professors and Researchers from Nihon University, Japan, and 13 researchers from Nagoya Electric Works, Japan.