Mid-tier IT firm MindTree has built a video-based toll management application that could prevent revenue leakages for infrastructure companies.
Developed on its new digital surveillance platform, the solution is getting attention from the Indian government which is setting aggressive road building targets while pushing for electronic toll collection. According to estimates, the leakage in toll collection in India on a per lane-per day basis totals close to R20,000.
In many parts of the world, up to 30% of the incremental revenue has been recovered by infrastructure companies using revenue assurance technology. MindTree?s CEO and MD Krishnakumar Natarajan estimates the market for toll management solutions in the country to be ?a few thousand crore?.
?It is not a small market. Our solutions are being piloted. But there are real opportunities in the funnel. Maharashtra has already chosen a vendor to provide a vehicle control system. An integral part of this is our toll management system,? Natarajan said. ?Look at the investments that are going on toll roads. Infrastructure players want sophisticated solutions because that is what the government demands,? he added.
MindTree?s new solution does traffic analysis, parking lot management, traffic enforcement and evidence management. ?The implications can be large. An infrastructure provider can have toll roads in different parts of the country and if he wants a central toll console to know how much he has collected, you can integrate many of the solutions and provide a standard dashboard for the company. So we are building solutions around a business problem,? Natarajan said.
India?s road building target for 2011-12 is 2,500 km. According to the ministry of road transport and highways, there are currently 268 toll barriers on national highways in the country and the revenue collection on these toll barriers during the last three years were R2,699.83 crore for 2008-2009, R4,151.31 crore for 2009-2010 and R5,516.05 crore for 2010-2011.
MindTree?s digital surveillance platform is a non-linear initiative that could, going ahead, reduce its revenue dependency on people growth. If it clicks, the toll management solution can also boost its India revenue mix. The India pie for the company current stands at 8% of its $331 million top line.
Bagging government projects could be key to growing the domestic sector mix, the CEO held. The firm is focusing on mission mode projects. MindTree, in June 2010, had won the application development and maintenance services contract for India?s UID project, renamed as ?Aadhaar?.
Now it is sensing opportunities from Aadhaar-related applications.
?A state might decide that it wants a system to distribute commodities to Below Poverty Line families. One state government has chosen us to build one such solution. Also, we are doing a proof of concept for an oil marketing company that wants to ensure proper distribution,? Natarajan said. The Aadhaar ecosystem business, spanning hardware and services, can be worth R4,000 crore in the coming years.