News: E-challans for jumping signal at 13 traffic points-10-06-2021
Gurgaon: The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), along with the city police, has issued as many as 621 e-challans to commuters jumping traffic signals at 13 locations in the city.
The challans are being generated with the help of CCTV cameras with traffic signal violation detection software installed at these spots.
The locations where e-challans are being issued include Rajesh Pilot Chowk, Wazirabad, Bhakhtawar Chowk, Bristol Chowk, Khusboo Chowk, Ghata village T-point, Jharsa Chowk, Galleria main market, IFFCO Chowk metro station, Pataudi Chowk, Sirhaul Mor, Hero Honda Chowk and Sector12 Chowk. Work is underway to start e-challans at another 13 locations.
According to GMDA officials, the first e-challan was issued on March 8 when chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had visited the integrated command and control centre (ICCC), which receives the data recorded by the cameras and generates challans.
“After the cameras detect a violation, the system at ICCC generates a challan and sends it to the police desk for approval. Once approved, the challan is automatically sent to the offender either through SMS or by post,” said an official working with GMDA’s smart city division.
The wing has installed more than 1,000 cameras in the city under the first phase of the project. Installation of another 200 cameras is pending in this phase, which was supposed to be completed by April this year. The pandemic has delayed the project, GMDA officials claimed.
Out of the 1,000 cameras set up, at least 300 are traffic signal violation detection cameras. TOI had earlier reported that these cameras are installed with artificial intelligence software, and these are being monitored in GMDA’s ICCC. The locations have an overview camera to capture the zoomed-out photo of an entire area when a vehicle jumps traffic signals. Light sensors detect the change in traffic signals.
Once the traffic signal has turned red, the sensors activate the camera for capturing images of the vehicles jumping the signal. The automatic numberplate recognition software installed in the camera reads the numberplate of the offending vehicle. The feed is then sent to the ICCC, where it is matched with the government’s Vahan database, and the system automatically encrypts and transfer the data of violation to the centralised server at the traffic police headquarters. The system also facilitates e-challan generation along with photo/video evidence, which is then sent to the violators’ mobile phone via SMS.
