PANJIM: Taking a cue from its Mumbai counterparts, Goa Transport Department is resorting to smart and tech-savvy methods to curb late night offences, currently going unchecked.
Vehicular traffic during the night has been increasing in Goa, but violations during after-hours are going unchecked. Transport Department has thus decided to crack down on violations by proposing Artificial Intelligence (AI) CCTV device at susceptible junctions. The proposal has been moved to the government.
“Manual implementation of traffic rules has limitations and moreover, it cannot be carried out at midnight all round the year. There are also occasions when the police/transport personnel are diverted to other places. It is during this time that traffic violations are the most,” a senior Transport Department official said revealing the plans to cover unmanned places with machines for traffic violations.
The officer claimed that artificial intelligence will not only detect violations but also help the police department detect stolen vehicles. Details accessed by Herald indicate that the device will have the capacity for a quick search of the violating vehicle’s number plate by which it can also search all data-bases including its involvement in previous offences, if any.
“When caught on camera for a particular offence, it will simultaneously check if the vehicle is involved in other traffic violations. Accordingly, the software will generate a challan,” he said, adding that once the government approves the proposal, bids would be invited.
The officer explained that whichever firm is selected for the project, it will bear the entire cost of installation and maintenance. “Government will pay zero amount,” he added, further revealing that the concerned firm will be paid based on the number of challans generated on line with the Mumbai model.
“Our idea is to convey to the vehicle users that someone is watching you. Only technology can solve the problem wherein this project will not involve human-to-human interaction and yet without troubling people it will also ensure transparency,” he said.
Transport Department has decided to place another proposal to use the hand-held POS e-challan machines. This system too will detect repeat offenders, which gets difficult in manual functioning. “The software will catch an offender’s past records and accordingly generate a challan,” the officer said.
The software was zeroed in on after tests conducted to ascertain sustainability of the devices. With this, the department will take forward its digital transformation towards issuance of challans too, which has been manual so far. The payment too will be through multi-digital mode like PayTm, UPI, credit or debit cards. The proposal is still at the draft stage after which it will be put up before the government for approval. The department has already converted 90 percent digital by which revenue is collected.
