THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The roll-out of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system which enables enforcement agencies to track traffic violations will take at least a couple of months more as the Motor Vehicles Department is struggling to streamline vehicle database. Hence the full functioning of interceptor vehicles fitted with ANPR will have to wait till a centralised database is ready.
The database has proved to be a cumbersome one as there are multiple entries for a single vehicle from various Regional Transport Offices. “We have reached the half way mark in rectifying mistakes in the data. But it is taking more time than expected,” said an officer of MVD. The department was planning to streamline the old database by January.The database stored in the data centre located in Technopark had to be modified and ported to the central data centre in Delhi.
“We can utilise the functions of ANPR only when we fully port the database,” said the officer. The ANPR system captures the number plate details and check the database if the vehicle was blacklisted for any previous offence. It could help the enforcement agencies to track stolen vehicles. The department has been using Smart Move software till recently. It has switched to Sarathi and Vahan softwares for entering vehicle and licence details respectively. But the old system was designed primarily for a single office in 2006.
“There was little thought on connecting local servers through internet. Hence there developed multiple entries when the vehicle changed hands from one RTO to another,” said the officer. According to him, the state was way ahead of other states in streamlining the database.The department will soon deploy 17 new interceptors fitted with modern equipment.