COIMBATORE: Due to the delay in the functioning of AI-powered cameras, the Coimbatore city police are facing challenges to bring the newly built GD Flyover under their purview. They have been informed that the trial run of the AI cameras will go on for around one year.
With confusion prevailing over the maintenance of these cameras in the future, the police department is expecting that the installation and execution be done as early as possible.
The project, managed by the State Highways Department, features 44 AI-powered cameras and 16 LED display walls along the 10.1-km elevated corridor (GD Flyover). Though the cameras and display walls were installed at various locations on the flyover to curb traffic violations, the system has remained in the trial phase for more than four months. During this period, officials have noted an increase in violations, particularly over-speeding.
"In Coimbatore city, we are focusing on over-speeding violations and deploying teams and technology to curb over-speeding. Avinashi Road and the elevated GD Flyover is a major traffic route in the city where thousands of vehicles pass through. The U-turns, pelican signals and CCTV monitoring have almost controlled the issue on the road. However, on the flyover, as there is zero surveillance, people continue to violate the speed limit and engage in rash and negligent driving. Since the highway department's AI-powered camera monitoring is under trial, the violations and accidents increase day by day," said a senior police officer.
Highways department officials, who acknowledged the issue, said the contractors appointed to implement camera monitoring have almost completed the work and soon it would be handed over to the police for another phase of trial run.
"Initially, the system struggles in identifying the violations. After we feed the inputs about the violations, it gets corrected and 90% of software-related issues were sorted out. Recently, the electricity connection for the cameras was damaged at three places. It does not appear on the display, but everything is being recorded. We will hand it over to the police shortly for second phase of trial run, when we modify them according to the suggestions from police. It takes some time," said an official.
Meanwhile, the maintenance and bearing the electricity cost for the system is also ambiguous. If it is handed over to the police, they would be responsible for everything. So, sources said the police department is hesitating to take the sole responsibility and is asking the highways department to bear the costs. But, the highways department says it can bear the cost only for next two years and the remaining would be managed by either CCMC or police who generate revenue through fines and advertisements.
Until these issues are cleared the functioning of AI-powered cameras remain to be in limbo.
