The Hindu : Front Page : Glitches hamper virtual traffic monitoring in city

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Friday, Dec 18, 2009
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Glitches hamper virtual traffic monitoring in city

Raghava M.

Problems in surveillance cameras dog the system

— PHOTO: SAMPATH KUMAR G.P.

OVERLOAD ON ROAD: The Traffic Management Centre is supposed to transmit real-time data to commuters to avoid such jams.

BANGALORE: The traffic constable virtually manning Devasandra Junction in K.R. Puram from the Traffic Management Centre (TMC) at the Ashoknagar police station Thursday afternoon spots a truck jumping a red light. He zooms the surveillance camera placed at the junction to focus on the vehicle’s registration number. Just as he is about to click the picture, the screen goes blank and the feed from the camera is restored only after 20 minutes.

Of the 160 cameras mounted at various traffic junctions across the city to monitor vehicular movement, just 125 were found to be sending visual feeds to the TMC at 1 p.m.

The camera that conked out was the one placed at the Coffee Board junction near the Visvesvaraya Towers, forcing the constable at the spot to manually operate the signals and manage traffic flow. The functioning of the TMC, set up to manage the city’s chaotic traffic, has been plagued by frequent disruptions in connectivity between the centre and the 160 surveillance cameras. Connectivity, incidentally is provided by the State-owned BSNL.

Fluctuations

“Fluctuations in the feed have been seen in over 20 per cent of the cameras. We are not receiving signals from 5 per cent because of damage caused to the connecting wires due to the ongoing infrastructure works,” said Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Security) Praveen Sood.

The Traffic Management Centre was set up in April 2008 to integrate various intelligent traffic management systems to decongest the city’s roads. The information from the 160 surveillance cameras, five enforcement cameras and 60-vehicle actuated traffic signals is used by the centre not only to manage traffic but also disseminate real time information to motorists and commuters. The information is available on ww.bangaloretrafficpolice.gov.in, broadcast by an FM Channel and via SMS.

The poor quality of the feed has affected the centre’s work in management and decimation of information. There have been times when there was no feed during VVIP movements, lamented the constable posted at the centre.

Another reason for the poor quality feed is overload of information on the copper wires connecting the surveillance cameras with the centre. “These wires transmit signals from the enforcement cameras and the vehicle-actuated traffic signals. At times, several officials simultaneously access the signals of a particular traffic junction,” Mr. Sood said. Moreover, this connection has been damaged at several places, including at Minsk Square because of metro rail work.

BSNL apprised

The Bangalore police have had several meetings with BSNL authorities and apprised them of the connectivity problems. “The officials assured us necessary measures to improve the quality of reception will be taken by next month, including isolation of cameras that restricts the access of signal to one person at a time We will have a better system once the centre moves to the new building on Bhagwan Mahaveer Road,” Mr. Sood added.

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