Industries dept gives clean chit to AI camera transaction deal; Fines to be collected from June 5

 

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government will start collecting fines for violations flagged by AI cameras from June 5 after the Directorate of Industries and Commerce gave a clean chit to the AI-camera transaction deal. The Transport Department is, however, aware that a clean chit by the Industries Department does not guarantee an end to the controversy.

A fine will be charged on approximately 2 lakh violations every day. The Transport Department has already asked Keltron to depute more staff at the control rooms for the same. The decision to start collecting fines from June 5 as per schedule was taken after transport commissioner S Sreejith informed minister Antony Raju about the department’s preparedness to collect dues.

Violations detected on a daily basis will be notified within seven days. At present, around 2,50,000 violations are caught on camera every day. Once the department starts to collect fines, it will have to send notices to at least 2 lakh people every day. At present, Keltron has appointed 146 employees to send notices. The number of notices sent is restricted to a maximum of 25,000 per day. The Transport Department has asked for at least 500 additional employees to scale up this number. The higher number of employees is also likely to increase the cost of the project. Keltron has stated that the cost of sending a notice is higher than estimated.

Under the Safe Kerala project, 726 surveillance cameras powered by artificial intelligence have been installed in the state to prevent traffic violations and reduce road accidents. Kerala Industries minister P Rajeev had on Friday rubbished the alleged corruption in the installation of AI cameras as part of the Safe Kerala project while citing a report filed by the principal secretary, Industries department. ‘State-run Keltron’s tender process for the Safe Kerala project was completely transparent and all due procedures were followed. All concerned documents are in the public domain as those were uploaded in the e-portal from then itself’, the minister said.