City gets 8 surveillance cameras

City gets 8 surveillance cameras
By Rashmi R Hebbur, DH News Service, Bangalore:
Smart management of Bangalores traffic junctions has always been tricky for the Bangalore Traffic Police.

The attempts to streamline the City’s vehicular density is all set to get a boost with the installation of surveillance cameras at eight more traffic junctions, this week.

To be set up under phase one of the B-Trac 2010 project, the cameras are expected to make Bangalore’s traffic management system ‘intelligent’ and ‘efficient’ through IT-enabled initiatives. These eight cameras will be linked to the ‘Traffic Management Centre’ located at Ashoknagar police station limits, which is already monitoring 32 other major traffic junctions, where such cameras are currently installed.

Under B-Trac, the idea is to gradually build an automated traffic signal management system for the heart of Bangalore city, while also creating a centralised control facility. This involves a major task of putting as many as 160 traffic junctions under the TMC’s eyes, through surveillance cameras. While this week’s works will gear up a total of 40 junctions for central monitoring, another 40 are planned to be covered within the next nine months under the second phase of B-Trac.

Software support
City Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Praveen Sood explained, "Inputs from surveillance cameras help improve the traffic management. Shortly, softwares will be operational to enable officials at the TMC to alter the timings of signals at any junction depending on the traffic density portrayed by these cameras. The timings of a set of junctions also can be manipulated if traffic movement is more in a particular direction.”

Surveillance cameras which deliver inputs to the TMC, hosting large display screens, help in appreciating the traffic position better. Sub-inspector Sudheer working at the TMC, explained, “These high-end cameras are capable of covering a radius of one and a half kilometres from the junction. Unlike the traffic cop present at a junction, TMC personnel can have an overall assessment of the situation. Then the necessary instructions is conveyed to the field personnel through wireless.” TMC has separate monitoring personnel for four traffic divisions of the city - East, West, Central and North-East.

The plan is not limited to linking the signals to the TMC and enabling their monitoring and control, manually. As the Additional Commissioner added, “the next stage will be to secure such monitoring using suitable software programmes, atleast for the central region.”

Automation may not be practical for the entire lot of 160 traffic junctions to be covered under B-Trac but about 25 to 50 crucial traffic junctions in city’s central region, will be covered,” he said.

Inputs from these cameras will also be useful in tracking the pattern of road user behaviour, traffic violations and to ascertain required improvement measures for any traffic junction.