In Transport & Logistics
Freight Assessment for Regional Waterway Connectivity
The technical, socio-economic, and logistical aspects of constructing a new canal to establish a direct inland connection between the Hooghly/Ganga River in India and the Padma River in Bangladesh, led to modeling the impact of the proposed canal on the pattern of transportation. The canal would not only be effective to divert a significant amount of traffic from the current land routes used for India-Bangladesh trade but could potentially divert trade from the North-East region to the rest of India. Data was collected from various government sources and trade-route partitioning was modeled based on the origin and destination of goods and the border crossing chosen for each goods category. The result was then mapped to a new potential waterway channel and the potential transition was estimated. This result was then forecast for the next thirty years.
Optimizing Electric Buses Routes by Monitoring Local Air Quality
The introduction of electric buses in Kolkata required planning the routes of greatest impact as well as the convenience of being within reasonable proximity to charging stations. The environmental impact required a study of hyperlocal fluctuations in air quality, especially in particulate matter across the city. For this purpose, custom low-cost air quality monitors were designed and manufactured, and calibrated by co-locating with reference grade sensors maintained by the Pollution Control Board. These sensors were placed at select locations across the city and their data was continuously captured in the cloud for over one year. Along with the information obtained from the network of reference-grade sensors, we developed a spatio- temporal dispersion model to interpolate and map the pollution levels across the city. Fluctuations and hotspots identified from this result were overlayed with the previously modeled demand to select the first two high-impact electric bus routes in the city.
Intra-City Freight Flow in the City of Kolkata
Fright transport around the city of Kolkata is complicated by the presence of River Ganges which requires traversal of the river across two main bridges resulting in congestion and delays. The World Bank Group intended to build roll-on/roll-off jetties at several locations to augment the available routes for trucks to cross the river. A study was commissioned to identify the impact of intra-city freight movement in the city of Kolkata as a result of these new crossings. The city was geographically divided into natural regions demarcated by canals or railway lines such that there were limited ways to cross from one region to the other. At each crossing, surveyors counted all goods transport vehicles while also recording their size and the type of goods carried. The survey lasted one week at each location, twenty-four hours a day. An additional survey was conducted at each large market in the city to interview shop owners to gauge and understand delivery patterns. The results were combined into a topological model which resulted in a visualization of the intra-city traffic flow by type of goods and vehicles across time and day of the week. As a result, the model could deliver a view of the potential consequences of local disruptions and deviations and was used to plan the location of the proposed jetties.
Route Rationalization for West Bengal Transport Department
The public transport network in Kolkata is vast and fragmented, being served by multiple government agencies and many private fleet owners. There was a need to consolidate routes and capacities among these operators to make the network efficient. To achieve this goal, each bus route was mapped by surveyors who marked the de facto trails and stops along with the number of passengers embarking and disembarking at each stop. This data was used to create a geographic and topological model of the bus network. Route sections were characterized and origin-destination level demand was inferred using Monte-Carlo techniques. Routes we then rationalized based on recommendations to merge, extend, or split routes using graph-theoretic measures. The results were presented to Transport Department officials and have since been implemented. This study was undertaken on behalf of the World Bank Group.
In Defence
Upgrading the Nationwide Information Technology Infrastructure of the Ordinance Factory Board
The Ordinance Factory Board was engaged in a pan-India upgradation of their entire IT infrastructure throughout the organization comprising the Head Office and 51 units including factories, training institutes, and marketing offices with a budget over 120 Crores. Our participation in this project is as consultants in Project Management where our team managed over seventeen OEMs and their implementation partners in the installation of hardware, networking, infrastructure, and application software. Although each component is supplied by different OEMs, it was our responsibility to ensure that they are seamlessly integrated into a complete working solution.
In Smart City
Route Rationalization for West Bengal Transport Department
The public transport network in Kolkata is vast and fragmented, being served by multiple government agencies and many private fleet owners. There was a need to consolidate routes and capacities among these operators to make the network efficient. To achieve this goal, each bus route was mapped by surveyors who marked the de facto trails and stops along with the number of passengers embarking and disembarking at each stop. This data was used to create a geographic and topological model of the bus network. Route sections were characterized and origin-destination level demand was inferred using Monte-Carlo techniques. Routes we then rationalized based on recommendations to merge, extend, or split routes using graph-theoretic measures. The results were presented to Transport Department officials and have since been implemented. This study was undertaken on behalf of the World Bank Group.