In a landmark move to enhance road safety and traffic management, the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act of 2019 mandated the implementation of electronic monitoring and enforcement systems on National Highways, State Highways, and urban roads across India. This initiative aims to significantly reduce traffic incidents and improve overall road safety through advanced technology.
In August 2021, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways issued comprehensive rules for the Electronic Monitoring and Enforcement of Road Safety. These rules target high-risk and high-density corridors on National and State Highways, as well as critical junctions in major cities, including those under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP). The electronic enforcement devices include speed cameras, closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV), speed guns, body-worn cameras, dashboard cameras, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems, weigh-in-motion machines (WIM), and other state-specified technologies.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has already installed the Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) on several high-traffic National Highways and Expressways such as the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, Trans-Haryana, and the Eastern Peripheral Expressway. The ATMS employs various electronic enforcement devices to swiftly identify incidents and effectively monitor traffic, thereby enhancing the response time for on-site assistance.
On October 10, 2023, NHAI revised the standard ATMS document, outlining the functional and technical specifications of the ATMS solutions and subsystems, including the Video Surveillance System and the AI-based Video Incident Detection and Enforcement System (VIDES). The revised document also includes provisions for API-based e-challan systems by enforcement agencies through VIDES, integration with the Rajmarg Yatra app, NHAI One, and live camera feeds to NHAI offices and enforcement agencies.
The installation of ATMS is now a standard component in new National Highway projects, especially on high-density and high-speed corridors. Additionally, standalone ATMS projects are being implemented on already constructed important corridors to further enhance road safety.
Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, provided this information in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today, emphasizing the government’s commitment to leveraging technology for safer and more efficient roadways across India.
