Those who regularly break speed limits on the Mumbai-Pune Motorway are in for an unpleasant surprise. The setup of 430 advanced cameras at 106 places will be completed by mid-October, marking an important step in the execution of the Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) project led by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC).
MSRDC’s joint managing director, Sanjay Yadav, remarked, “We’ve already begun the process of erecting gantries along the Mumbai-Pune Motorway. By mid-October, we hope to have installed 430 cutting-edge CCTV cameras in 106 strategic locations. These cutting-edge cameras will be linked to a central control room via optical fibre. The ITMS will be used to record different traffic offences such as excessive speeding, reckless driving, wrong-way driving, highway stops, lane changes, and so on.
It should be noted that this project adheres to the Built, Operate, and Transfer (BOT) paradigm. MSRDC will deputise officers from the transportation and police departments to oversee the project and discipline violators. MSRDC authorities announced mid-day that the massive network of high-tech CCTV cameras, including night vision cameras, will make breaking speed limits on the motorway extremely difficult.
“Excessive speeding, illegal stoppages, wrong entries (no entry), wrong-way driving, lane discipline violations, mobile phone use, seat belt non-compliance, pedestrian crossings, vehicles without tail lights and reflectors, unauthorised fancy number plates, overloaded vehicles, and two-wheelers in restricted areas will all be enforced through the HTMS system in Mumbai”, according to a report.
“Furthermore, the system will include a spot and average speed detection system at 39 locations, a lane discipline violation detection system at 34 locations, weigh-in-motion systems for commercial vehicles at all motorway entry points, an automatic vehicle counter and classifier at all toll booths, automatic number plate recognition with violation detection cameras at all toll booths for penalty collection, additional CCTV cameras for general surveillance, and wrong-way detection cameras, the report added.
A command and control centre, as well as various viewing areas, will be erected in Lonavala. All streams will be available to officials online. There will also be options for citizen participation and penalty collection, such as a mobile-responsive website, kiosks at various locations, variable message signs, and SMS notifications in the event that mobile numbers are linked to the Vahan system. Officials will instantly prepare and validate violation challans with all evidence (pictures, videos, etc.) connected to the infraction and forwarded to the car owner.
A few systems will be installed in mobile surveillance vans and emergency vehicles as in cranes, towing vans, ambulances like Displays, camera and vehicle tracking systems etc. These cameras will be checked controlled and commanded by a centre in Lonavala.