100 cameras to keep an eye on speedsters

Kerala police to use system developed by Keltron from Monday

The police will use the state-of-the-art traffic surveillance system developed by Keltron from Monday to detect, identify, and prosecute motorists who violate speed limits on 50 accident-prone national highway stretches in the State.

As many as 100 cameras have been installed on the 50 stretches to identify speeding motorists and those indulging in reckless driving. With this, the police hope to drastically bring down the number of road accidents, majority of them caused due to speeding, negligence and reckless driving.

Hi-tech control room

The Hi-tech Traffic Enforcement Control Room set up in the Police Training College at Thycaud, which will monitor the vehicles passing through the 50 stretches, will be formally commissioned by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Monday. The 24-hour central monitoring station (CMS) has been linked to the system to enable law-enforcers to spot speedsters in real time. Field surveillance units, an array of active magnetic sensors buried below the road, and Doppler radars have been linked to overhead surveillance cameras in these 50 spots.

When the system detects a speeding vehicle, the cameras will capture the rear registration number plate of the vehicle and its video and still images from different angles, to be presented in court as evidence.

The surveillance points have been Internet-linked to the CMS. Field-enforcers can download the images on their mobile phones or laptops.

Automatic system

The automatic number plate recognition system will enable traffic monitors at the CMS to retrieve the registration particulars of the vehicle, including its ownership details from the data of the Motor Vehicles Department, at the click of a mouse. As the system runs on optical character recognition software, it can enhance even blurred images of number plates.

Rs.40-crore investment

Managing Director of Keltron, C. Prasanna Kumar told The Hindu that the capital investment by the public sector undertaking for the project was Rs.40 crore. Keltron would get the returns in 12 to 13 months from the revenue generated through the challans, he said.

Those booked for speeding and other offences, on being intimated through post, can pay the penalty at the collection centres in all districts or through net banking, debit and credit cards.