KOCHI: Ever felt intimidated by a speeding truck on the highway? If all goes well, the drivers on the Cherthala-Mannuthy stretch of the NH47 can heave a sigh of relief, as the entire stretch will be transformed into a ‘Safe corridor’ within two months. As part of the ‘Decade of action for road safety 2011-2020 observance, the Kerala Motor Vehicles Department and the Kerala Road Safety Authority have formulated the “Enforcement Automation Project” to convert the 98-odd km stretch of the NH47 from Cherthala to Mannuthy into a ‘zero accident zone.’ “An amount of `11 crore has been earmarked for the technical part of the project alone. The cost of the other part of the project, which involves awareness creation and removal of hoardings and signboards along the stretch, will be separate,” Transport Commissioner T P Senkumar said. Around 24 hi-tech surveillance cameras will be placed along various spots on the road to capture the images of defaulters’ vehicle and licence plate. “The defaulter will be tracked using the licence plate number and a notice stating the offence and penalty to be paid would be issued to the defaulter’s address within a week,” Deputy Transport Commissioner P A Sainudeen said.The monitoring technology involved is a mixture of virtual sensors, motion detectors, inductive sensors and logo sensors. Three pictures of the speeding or signal skipping vehicle, including a close-up of the number plate, will be taken as a proof of the offence. The main server linked to all the cameras will be set at the Deputy Transport Commissioner’s office in Kochi. The speed limit set on the camera will depend on the road where it is set up. The Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation Limited (KELTRON) has been assigned the technical aspect of the project. The first camera has already been set up at Pattanakkad in Alappuzha district to detect speeding. “The camera works fine and it has already started snapping pictures of the offenders. But action can be taken against them only after the entire system is in place,” said B J Antony, Regional Transport Officer (RTO), Alappuzha.“All the land encroachments, hoardings and distracting advertisements will be removed. There will be an awareness creation drive as part of the project,” said Adarsh Kumar G Nair, Motor Vehicle Inspector and Coordinator of the project.
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