Navi Mumbai traffic police to fight speeding with 'guns'

The department has been equipped with speed guns by the state government

You can no longer speed your way through the roads of Navi Mumbai, for the city's traffic police officials have been armed with speed guns by the state government. The traffic department will now deploy these devices on the city's major roads such as Palm Beach Road, Thane-Belapur and Sion-Panvel Highway, to book over speeding motorists.

According to officials from the Navi Mumbai traffic department, the new device can capture the speed of vehicles from a distance of 150 metres and measure speed up to 300 kilometers per hour. A speed gun costs around R7.5 lakh and is, furthermore, equipped with a five-megapixel camera that will be used to record the footage of the speeding vehicle.

PB Bankar, in-charge of the Administration department at the city's traffic department, said, "With these new devices, we will know the speed of over speeding vehicles from a distance. If anyone is found over speeding, we will stop them and levy a fine. The device can print a receipt, which will include details such as the speed of the vehicle along with the location."

Arvind Salve, deputy commissioner of police, Traffic department, said, "We are currently training our officials to operate the device. Usually, over speeding takes place on major roads and hence we will start using the speed guns from next week."

Navi Mumbai was the first in the state to issue e-challans with the help of CCTV surveillance. From August 2014, when the e-challan system was introduced, over 1,500 motorists in the city have been issued e-challans, out of which 500 have paid the fines and the department has collected revenues of R55,100. From January this year, 2,700 motorists have been booked through on the spot
e-challan devices.

At present the city has a network of 262 cameras which are also used to issue e-challans. CIDCO and Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) will install additional 1000 CCTV cameras very soon — they will be equipped with features such as face recognition software, alert communication system, detection of vehicle number plates at night and so on.

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