The Motor Vehicles department (MVD) has successfully completed the first phase of its trial run using 64 newly installed Artificial Intelligence (AI) cameras in Kozhikode district. The visuals received at the MVD’s control room will be shortly accessed by officials here to send challans to the violators concerned.
MVD officials said the trial run proved the capabilities of automated traffic enforcement activities with cent per cent precision and strong digital evidence. They pointed out that the AI camera network was established in the district covering all prime locations and it would be further improved with the availability of additional cameras.
Dismissing allegations that the automated enforcement activity would trouble lower income group of scooter families, the officials said the new surveillance measures were primarily meant to reduce road accident deaths. They also clarified that the implementation of the rule laid by the Central government for the objective was the responsibility of the State in the wake of increasing accident deaths.
Along with the MVD, the police have also stepped up its road surveillance measures with AI-enabled cameras. As of now, there are nine AI cameras for the police in the city limits alone to track road rule violations. A few more will be live soon on completion of the ongoing national highway widening works.
Apart from the automated camera surveillance network, efforts are also on to intensify manual road checking to track underage riders and smugglers of narcotics. These squads will be deployed mainly for flash inspections on highways and other selected locations.
“There are criticisms that the AI-based surveillance measures can be defied without paying the fine amount. Such non-cooperation will only result in further complications such as blacklisting of vehicles and hefty fines,” said a senior an MVD official. He also pointed out that a separate monitoring mechanism was in place for tracking such vehicles and their RC owners.
Published - April 22, 2023 06:26 pm IST
