If you are tempted to press your vehicle’s accelerator on the upgraded Bengaluru-Mysuru highway, think again. Over 1.2 lakh cases of overspeeding, including 89,200 cases of sectional overspeeding had been booked on the highway between August 1 and 26 this year.
According to a media report posted on X by the Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Training, Traffic and Road Safety, Karnataka, Alok Kumar, the sectional overspeeding system on the highway became operational from August 1.
With the speed limit on the highway restricted to 100 km per hour, motorists are booked not only when their vehicles are found overspeeding by any of the 48 Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras, but also for crossing an average speed of 105 km per hour between two sections of the highway within the permissible period. Motorists are penalised ₹1,000 for each offence.
Recently, a motorist was challaned for covering a distance of “20.6 km” somewhere between Ramanagara and Bidadi in “688” seconds as the sectional speed was 108 km per hour. The motorist was stopped by the Channapatna traffic police personnel on the highway during his next visit and asked to pay the fine.
While more than 34,000 cases of overspeeding were recorded by the ANPR cameras on the highway, the number of sectional overspeeding cases recorded by Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled cameras on the highway is more than 89,200 since August 1.
While motorists crossing 105 km per hour are challaned and fined ₹1,000 each, Alok Kumar is quoted as saying FIRs will be registered against motorists crossing 130 km per hour. According to him, 400 such FIRs have been registered so far.
Enforcing speed limits
It may be mentioned here that the authorities began strictly enforcing the speed limits after the highway witnessed a large number of fatal crashes leading to deaths and injuries during the first few months after it was thrown open for traffic.
Though the number of deaths has come down in the last few months, the authorities are aiming to bring down the fatalities to zero.
According to Mr. Kumar, three deaths each were recorded during April and May while June and July saw nine and six deaths respectively. Two deaths had been recorded during August.
Mr. Kumar has also been quoted as saying that the police may consider writing to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to increase the speed limit on the road only if the number of deaths due to accidents on the highway come down to zero and stabilize there for atleast three months.
