AI-dashcams power sentinel scheme’s new avatar to catch MV violators in Goa

Panaji: The traffic sentinel scheme, which was scrapped in the state, will soon become operational in a new form. State govt has decided to fit dashcams with artificial intelligence (AI) on Goa police vehicles and Kadamba Transport Corporation buses to capture traffic violators in the state which include riding triple seat on two-wheelers, riding helmetless, and speeding, among other traffic violations.
CM Pramod Sawant is likely to launch the new system to challan traffic violators by the end of this month.
A senior officer said that the dashcams will be installed on police control room (PCR) vehicles and buses of the state-run KTC, and the live feed will be sent to the control room. “The project has been taken up under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode,” a senior officer said.
An automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) unit, installed on vehicles, will relay data in real-time to a local computer. It will include vehicle number plate strings, ANPR operational status, device temperature, CPU usage and other relevant metrics. “The system will reflect the pass/fail status of incoming and outgoing vehicles based on the verification of their documentation status,” the officer said.
“Our focus is to bring down traffic violations in rural areas so that fatal accidents are reduced on these roads. Once the AI-based dashcam captures the traffic violators, a challan will be sent directly to the vehicle owner,” the officer said.
A senior officer said that the private company will set up a call centre to ensure that challans issued to traffic violators are recovered. “Once a challan is generated and sent to the vehicle owner, the call centre representatives will call the traffic violator and inform him/her to pay the challan. In case the challan is not paid, the case will be forwarded for prosecution,” the officer said.
In the earlier traffic sentinel programme, citizens could report traffic violations to Goa police, and Goa police used to generate a challan for the traffic violator. Incentives were provided to the citizens. Some people earned lakhs of rupees by becoming traffic sentinels. After the MLAs raised concerns over the scheme and the way it was managed, state govt scrapped the scheme in 2021, which started in 2017.
Panaji: The traffic sentinel scheme, which was scrapped in the state, will soon become operational in a new form. State govt has decided to fit dashcams with artificial intelligence (AI) on Goa police vehicles and Kadamba Transport Corporation buses to capture traffic violators in the state which include riding triple seat on two-wheelers, riding helmetless, and speeding, among other traffic violations.
CM Pramod Sawant is likely to launch the new system to challan traffic violators by the end of this month.
A senior officer said that the dashcams will be installed on police control room (PCR) vehicles and buses of the state-run KTC, and the live feed will be sent to the control room. “The project has been taken up under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode,” a senior officer said.
An automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) unit, installed on vehicles, will relay data in real-time to a local computer. It will include vehicle number plate strings, ANPR operational status, device temperature, CPU usage and other relevant metrics. “The system will reflect the pass/fail status of incoming and outgoing vehicles based on the verification of their documentation status,” the officer said.
“Our focus is to bring down traffic violations in rural areas so that fatal accidents are reduced on these roads. Once the AI-based dashcam captures the traffic violators, a challan will be sent directly to the vehicle owner,” the officer said.
A senior officer said that the private company will set up a call centre to ensure that challans issued to traffic violators are recovered. “Once a challan is generated and sent to the vehicle owner, the call centre representatives will call the traffic violator and inform him/her to pay the challan. In case the challan is not paid, the case will be forwarded for prosecution,” the officer said.
In the earlier traffic sentinel programme, citizens could report traffic violations to Goa police, and Goa police used to generate a challan for the traffic violator. Incentives were provided to the citizens. Some people earned lakhs of rupees by becoming traffic sentinels. After the MLAs raised concerns over the scheme and the way it was managed, state govt scrapped the scheme in 2021, which started in 2017.