Daniil Khazov, Chief Commercial Officer at Urbantech Group of Companies, spoke about the situation in the sphere of smart transport systems (STS), new solutions, the impact of sanctions and why the ongoing automation of the transport industry is important.
Since late February 2022, the situation has been dual for Russian IT companies: while on the one hand, they are restricted in their access to many technologies and components, on the other hand, the departure of foreign companies has ignited demand for the development of solutions to replace those who have left the market. Whereas before the end of 2021, solutions for the transport industry accounted for 4.5–5% of the Russian IT market, by now, demand has grown manifold.
Today, off-the-shelf equipment, such as servers, are available to buy, although the prices have grown by one third as a minimum, and delivery times may be up to several months, depending on product type. On a general note, parallel imports have turned out to be a solution to this issue. Nevertheless, the share of foreign equipment and components in Russian STS systems is about 80%. It will not be possible to replace them even in the medium term. We however will try to switch to domestic developments where we can.
Daniil Khazov believes that digitization of Russia’s transport sector is a high-priority issue.In Russia, about RUB 60 bn is spent every year on conceiving plans intended to support the development of transport infrastructure and end-to-end mobility schemes. This year, the government allocated 735 billion rubles to finance smart transport system (STS) implementation projects in Russian regions. The expert noted that the lion’s share of these budgets is invested in the procurement of necessary equipment and software, but unfortunately, the federal subsidy does not cover the costs of supporting the new infrastructure or those of keeping it up-to-date. Based on Urbantech’s experience, regional STS implementations, systemic support and maintenance of STS, industry-specific consulting on traffic management with the involvement of market experts, traffic violation/incident analysis products bring about the greatest impact for the regions when deployed in a comprehensive manner.
The expert noted that with STS implementation in Makhachkala, Urbantech specialists have successfully enhanced downtown street traffic capacity by an average of 15%, at the same time reducing travel time in those streets to just 15 minutes. In addition, since the launch of the “Traffic Management Center as a Service” project in Shchelkovo and Fryazino, the traffic capacity of the Proletarsky Prospekt, the main artery of this urban agglomeration, has improved by 25%.
Source: itsjournal.ru
Foto: Sergei Vedyashkin / Moskva News Agency