Installation of number plate recognition cameras, seat-to-seat surveillance to catch traffic violators

In Nepal, there is a big problem of people being run over by vehicles and not being identified. Even though the use of technology is low on the roads of the country including the valley, this problem is happening, which has been harassing the Nepal Police.

A new technology that can be monitored and identified has been introduced in Kathmandu Valley. With the help of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City, the Valley Police has started using state-of-the-art cameras capable of reading the number plates of the vehicles that ran away and what activities the driver is doing while driving.

Which is called the ‘Automatic Number Plate Recognition Camera’ (ANPR). Mainly it will help control the driver’s activity. Is the seatbelt on or not, is the driver smoking and driving? Have you ever driven a car while talking on the phone? The camera helps to find that. And also reads the number plate and sends it.

Senior Superintendent of Police Dineshraj Mainali, the spokesperson of the Kathmandu Valley Police Office, said that the camera with modern technology will take photos of the activities of the vehicle up to the number plate and the driver’s seat and send them to the server.

Let’s say a vehicle has caused an accident and fled, only its color is known, but if the number plate is not recognized, the camera reads the number plate of the vehicle passing by and sends it to the server. After that, the numbers of all the vehicles of that colour will be identified, and the owner of the vehicle can be reached by coordinating with the transport, said Mainali.

‘People may not tell the truth, but technology and evidence must tell the truth, so it helps to gather evidence based on facts’, Senior Superintendent of Police Mainali added, ‘now we have connected it in Koteshwar’s Munibhairav, New Bus Park and Maharajganj area.’

Due to modern technology, it captures Nepali and embossed numbers as well. According to him, four have been installed in Munibhairav, four in the Maharajganj area and two in the bus park area. It sends the information to the control of the Valley Police. The necessary work can be done by analyzing it.

Previously, it was difficult for the police to identify the person and the vehicle in the case of ‘hit and run’, now after keeping it, the vehicle that escaped from the accident can be traced. After finding out that it was a black vehicle, the number plate of the black vehicle is recognized by the camera, then the owner can be found by coordinating with the traffic.

Kathmandu Metropolitan City has supported the cameras that were installed a few days ago. Valley police said that it is necessary to expand it now. Mainali informed that other municipalities are also talking about cooperation, and now there is a plan to keep them at the checkpoint in Kathmandu during this financial year. It works even at night time. It is said that it will be able to capture the number by cutting off the vehicle’s lights.

One hundred and seventy cameras with different technologies are going to be installed in the valley. Facerid cameras will be installed in 10 places, automatic number plate recognition cameras in 10 places and cameras with video management (based on AI technology) in 150 places. The technical support of Synergy IT Solutions Kathmandu is in connection with this technology.

Manoj Khadka, executive director of Solutions, said that those cameras with different technologies work differently. He said that it would be easy to detect the criminals with face-riding cameras. If a photo of a missing person is set, the camera will read it and send it if it detects that the person has reached the area. He said that it would be easy to find people in the crowd.