Cameras installed on Bengaluru-Mysuru highway to detect sectional overspeeding

Sixty cameras, installed on the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway, will aim to detect “sectional over-speeding” and reduce speeding violations on the stretch.

The state police’s traffic and road safety wing has installed 48 radar-based Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras at six spots in each direction at a cost of Rs 3.5 crore and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has installed video cameras at three spots in each direction.

These cameras also cover the service roads to detect any violations and will automatically generate challans to the vehicle owners. They are currently undergoing testing; the challan issuing is set to begin soon.

Alok Kumar, the Additional Director General of Police (Traffic and Road Safety and Training), told DH, that he has instructed the vendors to enable the camera systems to detect sectional overspeeding.

“The cameras will calculate the average time taken by a vehicle to cross a section between two camera poles and calculate if someone was going above the speed limit,” he said. For example, if the cameras are fixed 20 kilometres from each other, and the maximum permissible speed on the stretch is 100 kmph, then the vehicles must cross the section in 12 minutes or above. If anyone’s vehicle is detected at the next camera installed within 12 minutes, then the camera system flags that as a speed violation.

“This will ensure that drivers do not slow down just before the cameras as they will have to maintain a permissible average speed throughout the stretch,” he said.

Besides recording speeding violations, these cameras will also detect seatbelt violations, mobile phone usage, lane violations, and unauthorised access of non-motorized vehicles, two- and three-wheelers on the highway.

Although Kumar did not explain the exact locations or distances where the cameras have been fixed, he noted that the police have focused on fixing cameras at accident-prone areas, such as Gananguru, Channapatna, Ramanagara and Maddur while also ensuring adequate cameras are placed to cover the entire 119-km distance.