Traffic enforcement activities will turn further digital with the round-the-clock State control rooms in the capital and six district-level control rooms set up under the ₹236-crore Safe Kerala project going live.
Through the new 700 Artificial Intelligence and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras in vantage points, enforcement officials in the control rooms can ensure road discipline and book erring motorists. Dedicated staff had been posted in the control rooms to issue challans to offenders.
The real time monitoring is part of improving Motor Vehicles Department’s (MVD) automated traffic enforcement activities and to gradually end the manual enforcement activities. Besides, the MVD can put an end to the complaints, ensure transparency and reduce manpower.
The control room for Thiruvananthapuram has been set up at the Transport Bhavan in Fort. The district control rooms are in Kollam, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Palakkad and Malappuram. Transport Minister A.K. Saseendran will commission them on Monday.
Control rooms are already functioning in Ernakulam and Kozhikode districts. The control rooms in other six districts would be commissioned before March 31, Transport Commissioner M.R. Ajith Kumar said.
Joint Transport Commissioner Rajeev Puthalath said road accidents had been brought down by 33.5% in 2020 and the aim is to achieve the 50% target set by the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety.
The ANPR cameras are portable and could be placed anywhere. The Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation (Keltron) is behind the execution and the resources had been mobilised from the Kerala Road Safety Authority, he said.
Under the project, all 65 enforcement squads of Safe Kerala have been provided plug-in electric vehicles. All gadgets for monitoring vehicles such as speed radars, breath analysers, and decibel meters are installed. In addition to the driver, there will be one MVD officer during daytime and two at night in these vehicles.
These patrol vehicles will also provide feed to the control room and facilitate speedy relief in the event of an accident or vehicle breakdown. As many as 14 enforcement RTOs, 99 motor vehicle inspectors and 215 AMVIs are working under Safe Kerala.
