Police Hold Back Smart City Traffic Network Takeover
The system, developed under the Traffic Safety and City Command Control Centre and Adaptive Traffic Control System project, includes around 1,047 cameras at 110 junctions and traffic signals at 57 junctions. City police commissioner Arul R B Krishna said an assessment by traffic assistant commissioners found more than 20 signals to be dysfunctional. He also said 15 to 20 per cent of the contracted work, including signal and camera functions and other promised features, remained incomplete and the project had not received technical approval.
The police have formed an expert committee to examine the system before any handover. The panel includes a professor from the College of Engineering, Trivandrum, experts from the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing and the Kerala State IT Mission, as well as police officials.
Concerns raised during an earlier technical inspection included cameras being unable to identify vehicle registration numbers accurately. The inspection reportedly found dust on some camera lenses, which affected image clarity, and also identified concerns relating to camera quality, wiring and missing accessories.
Smart City Thiruvananthapuram, however, maintains that the network is operational apart from minor complaints at a few junctions, where corrective work is under way. The agency said camera calibration had been completed and test challans were generated successfully through the e-challan platform, while final police clearance was pending.
The government-approved agreement has been sent to the police for verification. The agency said the police had indicated readiness to take over the system in a September 2024 letter after an initial verification. The contract was awarded to Madras Security Printers, which subcontracted signal software work to ARS. Payment delays from the principal contractor to ARS had temporarily halted some software-related work, but the commissioner said that arrangement was not the police’s responsibility.