THRISSUR: Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala has urged the state government to make public all the details of the project related to the AI-powered cameras, which he said, were installed across the state to “impose fines in the name of road safety.”
Saying neither he nor Congress was against implementing road safety measures, Chennithala alleged corruption behind awarding the project’s tender to Bengaluru-based SRIT India Ltd despite its inexperience in handling similar projects.
“SRIT gave sub-contracts to Lyte Master Lighting India (P) Ltd and Presadio Technologies Pvt Ltd. Due to internal issues, Lyte Master withdrew from the project and Presadio implemented it. As the project was conceived under the BOOT method (build, own, operate, transfer) model, Presadio received investment from a third person to implement it,” he claimed. “We want to know whether an e-tender was called and who took part in it,” he said.
Chennithala also alleged that the claims about the cameras were not right as they were only Automatic Number Plate Reading cameras equipped with just 1% AI technology. “They can only read number plates, nothing else,” he said.
Claiming that the project cost Rs 155 crore as per the agreement between Keltron and SRIT, Chennithala alleged that as per SRIT’s project report, it could be implemented for Rs 75 crore. “However, when it was implemented, the total cost shot up to Rs 252 crore. How could this happen? The chief minister and government should reveal it,” he said, adding that the burden of paying back the Rs 252 crore the companies spent on installing the cameras had fallen on the people of the state.