Transport dept invites bid to install auto number plate recognition cameras

“Under this proposal, it has been proposed to install cameras with sensor and infrared flash at 56 locations, covering the 280 km stretch. A control room would be set up in the city with specialised software to link up with Vahan for automatic generation of e-challan for violations,” a senior Transport department official said.

The control room will download the images captured by the ANPR camera to detect offences such as over speeding, non-wearing of seat belt by the driver and front-seat passenger, non-wearing of helmet by riders and pillions, using of mobile phone while driving, unauthorised parking on highways and carrying passengers in goods vehicle.

The official said the challan will be generated in Vahan and Sarathy software database, and will be dispatched by email, post or SMS to the offenders for online payment. “The control centre will be in the Transport Commissioner Office in Chennai and facilities will be provided to connect the Police Control Room for sharing data,” the official said.

The cameras installation would be done on a pilot basis at a cost of Rs 25 crore along the accident-prone Chengalpattu-Tiruchy stretch of the NH 45 as per the announcement made in the Assembly this year. Transport Minister MR Vijayabhaskar had said if found successful, this would be implemented in other accident-prone stretches of five more highways. If successful, this would be expanded to Chennai-Bengaluru highway, Salem-Coimbatore highway and Tiruchy -Madurai highway as well, said a senior official of the Transport Department.