Ahmedabad: Fancy number plates give traffic cameras 0 chance

Ahmedabad: Traffic rules violated by a ghostly procession of hulking jeeps, swaggering SUVs, and souped-up bikes are never detected because these vehicles tear around the city without number plates. Sometimes these vehicles use fake plates or have PRINCE or SIX-SEVEN slapped on the plate. Even AI-enabled public surveillance cameras cannot trace an offence to a registered vehicle. Irate residents say these vanity-plate daredevils are road bullies. The real rot, however, sits at the source: dealers handing over vehicles without proper registration.
A master's student, Prakash Jhadav, on Friday reported a black jeep with PRINCE emblazoned on the plate driving aggressively near St Xavier's College Road in Navrangpura. "The jeep drove past me on that narrow road. I thought the vehicle would run over me," Jhadav said. "I turned around and saw only the prince tag on the registration plate." Officials estimate nearly 5-6 lakh vehicles across Gujarat are running without valid plates. In Ahmedabad specifically, traffic police drives reveal that one out of every 15 vehicles is a violator. A senior traffic police official pointed to Facebook pages showing delivery ceremonies as evidence, "Just go over the pages of leading dealers and see for yourself; family members are handed keys to cars without any registration plates." The city's AI-enabled CCTV network is technically a powerhouse. These smart cameras are capable of facial recognition, tracking travel routes, and logging exact times of travel to associate a specific face with a plate-less car. However, technology hits a dead end at the gates of private residential societies. "The moment we flag a violator on the move, tracing them once they vanish into a complex is nearly impossible," says a senior traffic police officer. Traffic cops note that while front number plates are often standard to pass initial inspection, owners intentionally turn rear registration plates "fancy" or remove them entirely to evade cameras. Meanwhile, the RTO continues to play the victim card, claiming it does not have enough staff to manually intercept and seize such vehicles.