E-Paper
‘Third eye’ of Pune Traffic Police helps register 1.5 lakh violations
Until June 8, 1,51,658 cases were registered through this system with the help of 1,250 CCTV cameras. Out of these 1,250 cameras, 277 cameras rotate in various angles every 20 seconds.
The closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed in the city are proving to be more effective than expected by the traffic police. They have helped the police register over 1.5 lakh cases of traffic violation. How? One may ask. The police have established a computerised system which enables them to send a message to the traffic violator.
The mobile numbers attached with a vehicle during its registration were obtained by the traffic division from the Regional Traffic Office (RTO), said Assistant Police Inspector (traffic), Mahesh Satbale, who looks after the CCTV initiative. The traffic police have a base of 9 lakh mobile numbers under the system which was launched on March 29.
Until June 8, 1,51,658 cases were registered through this system with the help of 1,250 CCTV cameras. Out of these 1,250 cameras, 277 cameras rotate in various angles every 20 seconds. These 277 cameras also help the people sitting in the control room to zoom in and out and set an angle manually.
The traffic police staff sitting in the control room send around 3,000 to 4,000 messages which contain the description and picture of the vehicle captured during the traffic rule violation.
On an average, the 3,000-4,000 CCTV cases per day are registered in addition to the 2,500-3,000 cases registered manually by the traffic police officials deployed on the roads. Therefore, the traffic surveillance has shot up to close to 5,500-6,000 cases from 2,000-3,000 per day.
“It is at an initial stage and a few areas need to be worked on. For example, the fine needs to be collected more effectively. However, the system is working and people should cooperate and pay fine on time,” said Ashok Morale, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Traffic.
Of the 1,51,658 cases registered, 4,900 people have responded and paid the fine. The collection from these 4,900 cases has crossed Rs 11,57,000 on June 8. However, the amount of unpaid fine is Rs 4,11,95,804, according to the statistics recorded until June 8. This maybe because of various reasons, including lack of awareness of the system. However, API Sartape points out that the unpaid fine will become part of the record of the vehicle and the owner.
After around three months of the launch of the system, a better way of collection will be put in place, said DCP Morale.
“People should know that we are watching and should get used to the system as there won’t be a U-turn now,” said DCP Morale.
The system was launched when the RTO announced that over 25 lakh two wheelers were registered in Pune until December 2016 and were increasing on an average of 700 vehicles per day. Pune also happens to have the third highest density of cars with 248 cars per km after Mumbai and Kolkata.
With the increasing number of vehicles plying on the roads of the city, the new system will serve as the third eye of the traffic police, said API Sartape.
