Red light cameras to put an end to car thefts in city

CHENNAI: The city traffic police plan to install red-light cameras at all 240 traffic signals to zero in on stolen vehicles. “The red-light camera system, to be installed in a couple of months, will be fully automatic. There will be at least three cameras positioned at the corners of every intersection and will all be linked to a computer in the master control room.The devices will automatically photograph vehicles that are stolen or whose drivers jump signals,” said M Ravi, additional commissioner of police (traffic).
The cameras will help record minute details of stolen vehicles and also those violating red-light signals. The project, estimated to cost Rs 10 crore, will be funded by the state government and the World Bank.
The project is a first-of-its-kind intiative and aimed at bringing Chennai on a par with cities in the UK and US. Officials would also feed vehicle registration details into the system. “The moment we get a complaint about a stolen vehicle, the person in the control room will feed the details in the server. When the vehicle passes through the camera-equipped intersections, the device will alert the police stations and the police will be able to easily trace the vehicle. If the number of the stolen vehicle is changed, the device will also say that the number plate and modes do not match. It will alert the control room,” added Ravi.
Ravi said the cameras would also help find out all the previous violations against the vehicles concerned, especially if some of them had jumped traffic signals continuously. The vehicle would be traced and the culprit arrested. There was also a plan to implement the idea across the state if the project proved to be successful in Chennai, he said.
A ten-member technical committee, headed by Ravi and experts from IIT Madras and Anna University, submitted a detailed report in this regard to the state government.
He said that city traffic police also planned to set up a boom barrier system in the city on the lines of those in European countries.
If the signal shows red then a barricade (boom barrier) will block the road like railway gates. It will help reduce traffic violations at signals and help pedestrians to cross the roads.
“The boom barrier system will be implemented at 50 major junctions. A single boom barrier costs around Rs 2.5 lakh. This system will help divert the traffic when VIPs pass on the routes or in case of emergency situations like major accidents,” said Ravi. He said that city police department had constructed the Traffic Education Centre (TEC) in the campus of the new commissionerate, where they would teach about the new system, adding that traffic police had planned to introduce the traffic interceptor vehicles that would help in chasing speeding vehicles.
Professor V Thamizharasan, IIT-Madras, transportation, engineering division, is of the opinion that the concept is good but at the same time said the project should be implemented after thorough research.
He said: “Manpower shortage could be an issue while implementing such projects.”