In 2002, Md Ashraful Alum was a fourth year student in the Department of Architecture at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). He lived in Dr MA Rashid Hall, along with his roommate Shuvo, a junior from the same department.

Despite the age difference, they had a friendly relationship.

One day Ashraful received a call from Shuvo’s number, but someone else was on the line. The voice said, “He has died in a traffic accident. You may identify him since you were the last person he spoke to. Please come to the morgue.”

A courier van ran over Shuvo in the Jatrabari area of ​​the capital.

This incident left a deep mark on Ashraful. He promised himself that he would work on traffic accidents for at least a year. He would do a root cause analysis of the problem.

Ashraful lived up to it. He went out into the streets. He started observing the movements and behavior of vehicles on the roads. In this way about two and a half years passed. He witnessed firsthand the full extent of the capital’s deadly traffic system.

Issues such as mechanical defects in vehicles, unqualified drivers and frequent violations of the law came to light.

He identified some typical causes behind traffic accidents between two signals. These include setting up shops or parking vehicles on the road, stopping vehicles in the middle of the street, pedestrians carelessly crossing the road and the competitive attitude of public transport drivers.

“I observed that the drivers had no emotion towards the accidents. It is a systemic failure in our society,” Ashraful told The Business Standard.

“To understand the importance of solving a problem, we must first realize how much damage it causes. I think traffic congestion and traffic accidents are silent killers of our economy. But because we don’t directly see the damage they cause, we fail to feel it .

As a result, we are learning our lessons at the cost of huge losses,” he said.

We have to look at the traffic problem from a mathematical angle. It must be solved using numbers and data. Our system has enormous business potential. If we charge only Tk 30 per month in exchange for complete traffic alerts, I think around 10 lakhs people will follow it.

Although he did not come up with any solutions at that time, Ashraful initiated some awareness raising activities, such as organizing photo exhibitions, providing advanced training for drivers, etc.

Afterwards, he became busy with his career as an architect. Although driven by a sense of responsibility to work on this issue, he took a long break and disengaged from road safety initiatives. Instead, he focused on his career.

But something remarkable happened in the meantime. Ashraful identified 20 black spots along the Savar-Manikganj highways and shared his report with the Chief Engineer of Roads and Highways Department. Just a month later, the infamous accident that killed Mishuk Munir and Tarek Masud occurred at one of these locations.

The year 2017-18 marked a turning point.

He dug back into road safety – or maybe found the thing back to him. He found out about a project by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He proposed a modernized signaling system at that time.

He continued to work on the issue again.

Fast forward to the last few years, Ashraful created a team and came up with an integrated artificial intelligence-based solution they call CITMS, short for Customizable Integrated Traffic Management System, through their company TrafFix.

How CITMS works

The essence is to keep everyone informed about traffic situations so they can work together seamlessly. That’s where data comes into play.

“We want to involve the public in our system. Anyone can help by providing traffic information using our system. If there is severe traffic congestion or disruption on the road, they can take a photo or video and send it to our system. Our teams will then try to reach the spot to address the issue,” Ashraful said.

There are three main parts of the CITMS solution — signal, camera and operation.

The signaling system will be fully automated. Each signal will have cameras that provide a real-time view. Traffic police officers can enter information into the system from their respective locations. If a road is closed due to an accident or for repair purposes, everyone will be informed in advance so that they can avoid the route.

It can also serve as a communication medium between traffic police officers and replace walkie-talkies. It will not require an internet connection or electricity.

“The system can record the activities and efficiency of traffic police. This way it will make them more accountable,” Ashraful said.

In 2023 alone, 7,902 people lost their lives, according to data from the Bangladesh Jatri Kallyan Samiti. A survey by the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) last year revealed that a resident of Dhaka city wastes about 276 hours a year sitting in traffic jams.

“We have to look at the traffic problem from a mathematical angle. It has to be solved with the help of numbers and data, otherwise we will not be able to find any solution,” Ashraful said.

TrafFix consists of 16 people, four of whom are founders. Most of them are skilled software engineers.

Ashraful mentioned that there have been experiments to implement three to four schemes in Dhaka, investing hundreds of crores but all failed.

But CITMS, he claims, is future-proof – meaning it’s designed as “open architecture” to meet future requirements. That’s how the team has worked relentlessly to upgrade the system over the past few years.

As the word “integrated” in the name suggests, the center of the solution is a mobile application. The app contains various modules to bring together various stakeholders including the city corporation, police, BRTA, journalists and government agencies.

Artificial intelligence will handle tasks such as assessing traffic flow, monitoring the average speed of vehicles, understanding the effectiveness of signal timing, automated data analysis of traffic signal effectiveness, and identifying vehicle number plates.

In addition, it will handle tasks such as detection and reporting of traffic signal violations, illegal parking, illegal lane change and speeding, and data analysis of traffic jams, etc.

“Our system has huge business potential. If we charge just Tk 30 per month in return for complete traffic alerts, I think around 10 lakhs people will follow it.”

The solution comes at an affordable cost because the raw materials are locally sourced. While that may vary, the device, lights and accessories will cost roughly Tk25 lakh to Tk50 lakh – almost a tenth of the price of imported ones.

Ashraful believes we can even export the system to other countries. If the government invests in this, it will generate returns in less than two years.

“We have shared our project with experts and some stakeholders, and they see it as a robust and sustainable solution. But we are currently awaiting discussions with officials from the new interim government,” Ashraf concluded.

TrafFix wants to work together with the government for two years to implement its solution and strengthen the government’s capacity. After that, the government will take control and keep them as shadow consultants.