For the first time, the state government has decided to equip the highway police with tablets to register accident cases with all required details. This is among a series of decisions made by the State Road Safety Fund Regulatory Committee, headed by the state chief secretary, under the Supreme Court’s guidelines.

The state has approved Rs8.16 crore for 2,384 tabs, which will be equipped with the iRAD (integrated road accident database) or eDAR (electronic detailed accident report) apps developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), State Transport Commissioner Vivek Bhimanwar told the FPJ.

The registration of accidents using the tablets will not only help in reporting accidents accurately, it will also help in compensation to victims and gathering evidence with correct geographical location for further action. This will also record chronic accident spots where corrective measures can be taken, the Bhimanwar said.

Body-worn cameras

In a first, the state transport department will also spend Rs7 crore to purchase body-worn cameras for its officers to register details of the vehicles that flout traffic and transportation rules. Without stopping vehicles, these cameras will register all violations. The devices will also record all verbal exchanges between the law enforcers and motorists, and the footage will be admissible in court as evidence.

Hippo cranes for traffic cops

To swiftly clear the roads of illegally parked or abandoned vehicles and breakdowns, the Mumbai traffic police will get two hippo cranes and 41 regular cranes at a cost of Rs8.20 crore. At present, the traffic branch has four cranes for the entire city and it takes two to three hours to clear a road in case of a breakdown.

Automated driving test

Getting a driving license from the RTO will no longer depend on a nod from the inspector. Automated Driving Test Tracks (ADTT) are being developed at 38 offices, including one each in Mumbai and Thane, at a cost of Rs330 crore.

Currently, RTO officers approve over 100 driving licenses every day by asking the applicant to drive a vehicle, with rare rejections. ADTTs, used globally, reject human interference and conduct the tests with the use of AI cameras and sensors, Bhimanwar said. He added, “It has been seen that 82% of the accidents occur due to the drivers, and we wanted to issue licenses by testing only driving skills.”

He said the 18 skills will be tested and 14 will be uploaded in ADTT, with a system-generated result. One such centre is functional in Bhosari, near Pune.