Eradicating Traffic Congestion in New York City; Global IT Solution Provider MajescoMastek Offers Proven Solution from London.

EDISON, N.J. -- Technology may be the answer to New York City's congestion crisis, according to global IT solution provider MajescoMastek Ltd., which developed the software for London's successful congestion pricing project. E[acute accent]"Congestion pricing for New York City is not only a function of charging consumers, but also providing alternative modes of transportation, rationalization on tolls, and a technology solution that is seamless and does not lead to traffic chaos - a holistic solution," said MajescoMastek CEO Sudhakar Ram. (http://www.majescomastek.com/Leadership.php#3) E[acute accent]The city of London faced these challenges when implementing a congestion pricing program in 2003. London suffered the worst traffic congestion in the UK and one of the worst in Europe. Drivers spent half their time in queues and lost an estimated 2-4 million pounds weekly. E[acute accent]The entire project was awarded to Capita, UK's leading professional and support services company, which contracted Mastek Ltd. (MajescoMastek's parent company) to develop the software for the multi-channel customer interface and integrate several other components into the overall solution. E[acute accent]Key aspects of the solution included:

E[acute accent]--Some 800 fixed and mobile cameras record the number plates of vehicles entering or moving in Central London.

E[acute accent]--An automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system interprets the live video stream, capturing and converting number plates into data, and storing it in a database.

E[acute accent]--Two databases (of vehicles entering the zone and of payments made by drivers) are compared daily to determine the fees accessed to drivers.

E[acute accent]"It was a complex solution, but all the complexity was behind the scenes. For drivers, things couldn't have been simpler. There were no tollbooths, gantries or barriers - they didn't even have to slow down," said Ram. E[acute accent]The success of the initiative exceeded all expectations. Traffic inside the zone went down. Speeds increased by 10-15 percent while queues were reduced by 20-30 percent. The positive impact was also felt outside the zone. For the case study, see: http://www.majescomastek.com/DisplayCase.php?SCID=114&SMID=84 E[acute accent]"From a purely IT perspective, a congestion charging pricing system can be implemented in New York, which might also have a cost advantage over London in starting a system because it has fewer entry points," said Subramaniam V, head of Solutions at MajescoMastek. E[acute accent]MajescoMastek executives are available for interviews - Sandy Frinton, JMC, [phone], [e-mail].