COIMBATORE: The prolonged delay in commissioning the AI-powered speed monitoring system on the GD Naidu Flyover in Coimbatore has become a growing concern for both motorists and traffic police personnel in the city.
Though 44 AI-powered cameras and 16 display walls were installed at various locations on the newly opened 10.1 km flyover to curb traffic violations, the system has remained in the trial phase for more than three months. During this period, officials have noted a increase in violations. The issue was discussed during a recent road safety review meeting, where the police department urged the Highways Department to complete the trial run at the earliest.
"The flyover allows free flow of vehicles across its entire stretch, which has led vehicles to accelerate beyond the permitted speed limit. After multiple accidents, we recommended the Highways department to install cameras. Following this, AI-powered cameras were set up, but they have not completed their trial run even after three months. As we cannot deploy police at all places, the traffic regulation on the flyover has become a challenge," said a police officer.
Meanwhile, commuters continue to complain about technical glitches. They alleged that the system frequently malfunctions and, in some cases, wrongly detects traffic violations, particularly in the seat belt category. Several people have posted videos on social media highlighting technical issues. Motorists fear they may be wrongly charged, as they are not aware that the system is still under trial. "Only after proper implementation, we can generate challans and impose fines," said a senior police officer. He added that all these issues were raised before officials during the road safety meeting.
The Highways officials sought at least one month of time to fine-tune the accuracy in detecting the violations. An official from the department said they have asked the private firm that installed and operates the system to rectify the glitches. "We have also asked the police to close traffic on the flyover to rectify the issues, as it cannot be done in moving traffic. As AI cameras can only be run through pattern recognition and trial and error, we have to feed the right information. In the initial days, it ran only with 20% accuracy, and now it has been brought up to 80%. The people who are managing the software continue to feed the prompts, and it will probably be completed next month," the official said.