Traffic cops use tech to keep an eagle eye on violators

Rithu Dravid | NT
Bengaluru

The Bengaluru Traffic Police are monitoring and recording traffic violations remotely and uploading it to the traffic management centre. This contactless enforcement makes it easier for the cops to monitor the traffic at many junctions without having to stop the vehicles. “With this smart enforcement project, we do not stop anyone not do we intervene, the technology will take care of it. We will implement this project in 50 junctions. Already there are 10 cameras placed in 10 junctions which are recording red light violations. When a commuter wilfully violates or skips the red signal the camera captures the pictures as the red-light flashes and automatically the pictures will be recorded at our traffic management centres,” said B R Ravikanthe Gowda, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic).

The traffic police are also capturing pictures of the violators in their high-resolution mobile phone cameras and penalising the violators. While stopping near zebra crossings, the motorist must ensure the he or she stops near the white line marked before the crossing. Not adhering to this rule will render you a traffic violator and the cameras will capture these violations and challans will be automatically generated. It is crucial to abide by the traffic rules, however, in case you have violated them, you need to pay the challan for it.

A SMS and hard copy of the challan will be posted to the offender. “Red light violations are very dangerous and there will be escalations every time the offender or the violator jumps the red signal,” Gowda said. “Managing traffic violations is a difficult task particularly when we are busy monitoring the traffic congestions and regulating traffic at busy junctions,” says a traffic cop.

So, with the smart enforcement in place, the traffic police will not stop anyone or intervene, the technology will take care of it. “The Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras will be installed and will record the visible violations that we can see through the naked eye,” the Commissioner added. Earlier, DGP of Karnataka, Praveen Sood had tweeted that no vehicle can be stopped for checking documents unless the driver has committed a traffic violation or for drunk driving. He had issued this tweet repeatedly following reports of police arbitrarily checking vehicles for documents, which often led to the slowing down of traf fic movement.