CCTV project fails to click

“Despite repeated reminders by us,the Municipal Corporation is yet to repair the cables,” the traffic police official added.

Also,due to lack of manpower,challans for jumping red lights,wrong turns,and other major violations,are not being issued.Two-three personnel stationed at the control room have to manually zoom in on one camera at a time so only stationary vehicles at the intersections can be captured. One operator can zoom in on only one camera at a time,which defeats the purpose of entire project. Most of the challans issued till now have been to drivers who cross the zebra crossings while waiting at the traffic lights. While more grave offences like speeding,riding without helmet,driving without safety belt are being left out.

The traffic police are also not issuing challans to outstation vehicles. Their excuse: The procedure involving coordination with the neighbouring states is too cumbersome. The software that could have helped in tracing the vehicles outstation registration number plates is yet to be updated.

On May 7,CCTV cameras installed at 20 intersections in the city were put to use. Of these 20,only cameras at Industrial Area Phase I-II,Sector 29-30 intersection; Sector 20- 21- 33-34 intersection,Sector 20-30-32-33 intersection; and the Centra Mall intersection are functional at present.

As many as 530 challans have been issued since May 7 at these 4 points only.

More than 80 percent of these challans are to vehicles which cross over on the zebra crossing while waiting,leaving no room for the pedestrians to cross the road.

The traffic police claim they have issued challans for driving without seat belt,riding without helmet etc as well.

Sources also disclosed that traffic police has not been able to capture even a single vehicle jumping the red light. This is because the CCTV cameras are not equipped to pan a moving vehicle making it difficult to focus on the registration number plate.

The system of automatic challans through CCTV cameras is yet to begin. The traffic police officials have given no definite date as to when the entire project would be launched.

With the advanced software,the CCTV camera would be able to detect visible offences such as jumping red lights,taking a wrong turn and faulty registration numbers on its own. A total of 74 violations will be fed in the system software.

The automatic system will send a signal to the control room where the operator can see the number plate of the vehicle.

The senior officials of the Chandigarh traffic police are,however,satisfied with the functioning of CCTV cameras and dismiss the problems as initial glitches.

“This project is a feather in traffic police’s cap. We will start issuing challans to outstation vehicles soon. We are waiting for the software to be updated. Though only four cameras are working at present,the rest of the connections will be resumed soon and they will be functional in a few days,” said H S Doon,Superintendent of Police (Traffic).