BTP Blackberry project inspires other cities

BANGALORE INDIA: Inspired by the Bangalore Traffic Police (BTP) Enforcement Automation System, traffic officials of other Indian cities like Pune and Kochi have already implemented a pilot phase.

A team of higher officials from Delhi, Hyderabad, Rajasthan, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Mangalore and Mysore have visited the city to study the functioning of the new systems and implement a similar technology-led traffic monitoring routine in their cities.

SA Pasha, ACP, Traffic Training Institute, Bangalore Traffic Police, said that the department is ready to support other city police for installing this system effectively.

“Traffic police department in cities like Pune and Kochi have already piloted the project in their cities in partnership with BlackBerry (hand-held device provider) and Vodafone (telecom service provider), while other are working towards it,” he added.

Najib Khan COO - South, Bharti Airtel, informed that after the implementation of the second phase of the traffic enforcement automation in Bangalore, which involved distribution of around 375 BlackBerries and training regarding the usage, he has received invitations from traffic departments of other regions in the state.

He added that they have received interest from Mysore and Mangalore traffic departments. They would soon start with the proof of concept, followed by a pilot launch.

While BlackBerry is being used as the hand-held device for the project in Bangalore and Pune, Simputer is used in Cochin. While Airtel is the telecom service provider in Bangalore, Pune has Vodafone as the telecom service provider.

Confirmed Sachit Gaikwad, spokesperson from Blackberry, “We have distributed about 650 BlackBerry phones to the Bangalore police department, while in Pune we have distributed it in around 30 police stations. The models used in the former were BlackBerry 8700, while Blackberry Curve was used in the latter.”

Earlier, in March, Bharti Airtel had completed the deployment of the 'Traffic Police Enforcement Automation' system by providing BlackBerry smart phones to all the officers of the Bangalore Traffic Police. The department reported an increase in enforcement and revenue by more than 50 per cent since then.

Under this project, in Bangalore, city-based VAS supplier TELiBRAHMA Convergent Communications provides software support.

The special designed software provides access to the traffic with the database like the various offenses, the brief about the vehicle number. The cases booked are stored in the server and repeated offenders can be identified.

For those who cannot pay spot fines notices are issued and the details are put up on the server. Also the registration database from the transport department is linked up to Automated Enforcement Center.

Prahalad Kulkarni, police sub-inspector, Traffic Management Center, Bangalore Traffic Police, informed that in case of any changes/addition in the offense, systems, hierarchy, the automated hand-held devices are automatically configured through the network. Since 2007, when the first service was launched, the software has been upgraded 25-30 times.