Bengaluru
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) appears to not be keen on the ₹2 crore artificial intelligence (AI) camera project proposed by a private company that is running a pilot in HSR Layout to assist marshals to catch litterers in blackspots in the city.
Sources in the civic body alleged that the company has falsely linked all penalty amounts collected by marshalls for littering to AI cameras, and that the numbers were inflated to which a senior official raised an objection.
Under the pilot, the company installed about 15 cameras having the ability to capture vehicle number plates and notify the marshals. According to the company, they also have AI cameras, which can identify repeat offenders. The pilot project commenced in September 2022 is operational in the designated areas.
A few months into the pilot, the company came up with a proposal of installing cameras across Bengaluru, in all blackspots, at an estimated cost of Rs 2 crore. The data shared by the company to The Hindu shows that from September 5, 2022 to Aug 2 the AI assisted marshals collected Rs 60 lakh. The company claimed that each camera assisted in collecting Rs 40,000 per month.
The company did not divulge details about how much the pilot cost. It stated tha lt the pilot project was executed under no-loss, no-profit model.
The AI cameras capture the number plates of vehicles entering designated blackspot zone and notifies the marshal. The marshals have to download the app to receive notifications. Later, the marshals can look for the owner of the vehicle on Vahan data base.
A senior official in Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Limited (BSWML) said the project was pushed by a local contractor and local MLA. It was shown in the proposal that the company spent only Rs 5 lakh for the project but helped collect a massive amount of fines. Not all the fine amount shown in the data was collected through AI assistance, but by marshals independently, said the official.
While the BBMP wants to inculcate AI, it will also look into financial aspect and not give leeway to any contractor, the official added.
The company, responding to BBMP’s allegations, said there was an error in calculation in the data, which they had provided. The company later shared another data, stating: “An average of ₹30,000 to ₹40,000 was collected every month from each deployed AI cameras.”
