LUCKNOW, Oct. 1 -- A stretch of road that normally takes two minutes to cross suddenly takes four. Vehicles begin to bunch up near a junction, but before the slowdown turns into a long queue, Lucknow traffic police could get an alert on their dashboard. The city traffic police are testing a digital platform designed to spot such early signs of congestion at 56 traffic-sensitive locations and alert the control room when travel times rise sharply. The Traffic Congestion Monitoring Platform, currently in beta testing, automatically tracks travel time on selected road stretches and flags locations where delays cross set levels. "The system is designed to change how congestion is spotted. At present, control room personnel manually check Mappls, Google Maps and Apple Maps at different locations, assess traffic conditions and repeatedly check whether a slowdown is worsening. The new platform automates these checks for selected locations and brings stretches with significant delays to the attention of personnel," said deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Traffic Raveena Tyagi. "The idea is simple, instead of police looking for a developing jam, the system flags where they should look," the DCP added. Each monitored stretch has a baseline travel time. If a two-minute stretch takes four minutes, the system flags the rise in delay. For severe slowdowns, the dashboard generates visual and audio alerts, allowing personnel to check CCTV footage and seek updates from traffic staff nearby. It also displays travel time, delay ratio, severity and trend. The platform works alongside existing CCTV and field monitoring during the beta phase, allowing traffic police to compare automated alerts with ground conditions. It also uses historical data to compare current traffic patterns. "Once an alert is generated, the control room can contact the concerned route marshal, sub-route marshal or traffic unit. Senior officers can also be informed depending on the severity," DCP Tyagi added. Traffic police will test and refine the platform for about a month, after which more locations may be added....