Automatic number plate recognition cameras at Kherki Daula toll plaza on Delhi-Gurgaon expressway

The project is still in the testing stage. However, the objective of the project is to ensure that toll collection takes the minimum amount of time, and that commuters do not have to wait for more than the required three to four minutes for making their payments.

Millennium City Expressway Private Limited (MCEPL), the concessionaire for the Delhi-gurgaon Expressway, has installed automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras at all lanes at the Kherki Daula toll plaza.This measure has been undertaken to ensure that there is no slowdown in toll collection at the booths of the plaza in case the radio-frequency identification( rf id) tag reader is unable read the ‘Smatag’ or the ‘Fastag’ (RFID tags that are used on tolls for cashless payments).

Automatic number plate recognition is a special form of optical character recognition (OCR). It is a software that enables computer systems to automatically read the number plate of vehicles from digital pictures. (HT File Photo)

Officials said these cameras can recognise and read number plates and can support the toll collection system by syncing the vehicle information with data base available with the company, said highway officials.

The project is still in the testing stage. However, the objective of the project is to ensure that toll collection takes the minimum amount of time, and that commuters do not have to wait for more than the required three to four minutes for making their payments.

Rajinder Singh Bhati, project head, Skylark, highway contractor, said that 26 ANPR cameras have been installed on all the lanes of the toll. “The cameras can recognise number plates of vehicles and can catch the data which is then added to the data base. In case the RFID tag is not read properly, the booth collector gets this information automatically. This makes the collection process smooth and less time consuming,” he added.

Despite the high-end ANPR cameras, one problem the concessionaire is facing is that almost half of the vehicles using the toll plaza do not have standardised number plates. As a result, capturing data has been erratic.

“These cameras have been installed at a cost of ₹35 lakh. Right now these cameras are collecting data for toll collection, but later on data storage capability will be added so that the vehicles can be identified and numbers can be retrieved later in case there is a need for that,” said Anish John, manager, MCEPL, the highway concessionaire for the expressway.