Gone are the days when motorists could roam around freely before notices on their traffic violations caught on the surveillance cameras of the Motor Vehicle Department (MVD) reached them after weeks.
That delay is now about to be cut short significantly with the MVD entering into an arrangement called Facility Management Service (FMS) with Keltron whereby the generation, processing and despatch of charge memos based on camera feeds has been entrusted with the latter. Keltron is already responsible for the installation and maintenance of MVD cameras.
Transport Commissioner K. Padmakumar handed over the service at a function held at the control room of MVD at Kakkanad on Friday.
Earlier, this work was done by MVD through 12 daily wage workers monitored by their officers. They worked on a single shift from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. issuing on an average 2,500 to 3,000 charge memos a day.
However, under the new arrangement Keltron will run two shifts between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. and then from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. using 12 workers each during a shift. Once the system fully kicks in, the daily despatch of charge memos is likely to be doubled.
“The aim is to reduce the pendency of charge memos and ensure their delivery to the offenders at the earliest. In the long run, we plan to bring down the delay in serving notices by a week or less,” MVD sources said. The Department will now focus on follow-ups in the wake of issue of the charge memos and serving of reminders for speedy collection of fine.
MVD has put up 246 cameras across the State covering the stretch of Cherthala-Mannuthy-Thiruvananthapuram and the MC Road. However, 46 of these cameras are not operational at the moment owing to variety of reasons such as road widening, marking of road signs, road maintenance works or construction of flyovers or bridges as in the case of Vytilla Junction where all four cameras have been dysfunctional ever since the launch of the flyover works.
The new system is likely to ease the pressure on MVD what with the rate of traffic violations caught on the camera on rise and the increasing need for mounting new cameras, intensifying fine collection and logical conclusion of action on violations.
Joint Transport Commissioner Rajeev Puthalath, deputy transport commissioner Shaji Joseph, Regional Transport Officers K.M. Shaji, Reji P. Varghese and Jojy P. Jose, Motor Vehicle Inspector Biju Isaac, and representatives of Keltron were present.
