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From January, traffic violators in Mohali to get e-challans
Nearly 405 closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, installed at a cost of ₹17.70 crore, will keep tabs on traffic violations on city roads. On detecting a violation, an e-challan will be promptly generated and sent to the vehicle owner’s phone number
Come New Year and commuters in Mohali may want to turn a new leaf as the traffic police are all set to issue e-challans for those flouting rules of the road.
Nearly 405 closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, installed at a cost of ₹17.70 crore, will keep tabs on traffic violations on city roads. On detecting a violation, an e-challan will be promptly generated and sent to the vehicle owner’s phone number.
The move is aimed at checking reckless driving on Mohali roads, which has claimed 200 lives and left over 500 injured in 450 cases.
While the Punjab Police Housing Corporation (PPHC) has installed cameras at 17 intersections in the city, the plans to set up cameras at the Sohana gurudwara junction and Radha Saomi junction have been put on hold as the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) is to construct roundabouts here. Further, cameras could not be installed at the PCA junction due to the ongoing road widening work, but it will be done in the next 10 days.
The cameras, which are already live, will be monitored from the command-and-control centre set up at the Sohana police station building.
“Mohali police have already started monitoring these cameras and issuing manual challans for the violations based on evidence. E-challans will soon be issued,” said a senior PPHC officer, adding that a similar project is underway in Amritsar and Jalandhar.
The Union ministry of road transport and highways (MORTH) had in September asked the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to integrate the e-challan application of Mohali police with the Vahan portal to start the e-challans through CCTVs.
Punjab special DGP Sharad Satya Chauhan, who is also PPHC managing director, said, “We are in touch with NIC officials and have successfully tested the software for challaning. Commuters will start getting challans on their mobiles from January.”
₹80 crore proposal for advanced technology
To eliminate manual intervention, Mohali Police have prepared a proposal to seek ₹80 crore from the state government to install 1,500 advanced technology cameras that are Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled.
“These cameras will be installed across the district and can help track down criminals. For instance, if we want to trace a red Maruti car, we will be able to get data of all red Maruti cars which pass Mohali on a specific day. It will make our job much easier and efficient,” said a senior Mohali police officer.
A special committee has been formed to execute the project which includes IT professors, governance officers and road safety experts. The committee has already held four meetings in this regard and come up with the proposal.
“We are also looking forward to installing the Adaptive Traffic Control System (ATCS) and Vehicle Actuated Control (VAC) traffic lights to control the traffic signal using artificial intelligence. These cameras installed at traffic lightpoints will capture the traffic volume and accordingly set the timer for the traffic. With this, we can set up a long green corridor for VIP movement by turning all traffic signals green by just pressing a single button from the control room. At other times, traffic congestion can be eased by controlling the timer so that the side having a longer queue gets more time on the green signal,” said Deepak Pareek, Mohali senior superintendent of police.
