80% more revenue for B'lore Traffic Cops, thanks to the new automation system

Where there is a
way, there is a wheel," is how Prahalad Kulkarni, police sub-inspector, traffic
management center, Bangalore Traffic Police (BTP) puts the chaotic nature of the
city's traffic. Gone are the days when you could see traffic cops with writing
pads and challans, and booking the cases tediously. BTP, Bharti Airtel, and
BlackBerry joined hands together to change the scenario. Now the BTP staff, who
are entrusted with the job of penalizing traffic violators, are wilding the
magic wand called BlackBerry to generate more revenue for the department and
ensure stress free enforcement for both traffic violators and the staff. This is
the first of its kind enforcement system in the country. BTP has been inspired
by traffic models from various countries and put together the best systems to
suit the city's traffic congestion.

The deployment of BlackBerry solution has been made as a
part of the project called 'Bangalore Traffic Improvement Project-B-TRAC 2010'.
The Karnataka government has alloted Rs 350 crore under BTIMP for five years
from 2005-10. B-TRAC 2010 is the first of its kind project in the country to
address the issues of traffic congestion, safety, etc, utilizing the latest
traffic management technology and BTRAC 2010 is aimed at complementing the
efforts being done by other agencies to upgrade the road infrastructure and
efficient mass transportation system.

The Magic Wand

Bharti Airtel successfully completed the second phase of deployment of the
'Traffic Police Enforcement Automation' system by providing BlackBerry
smartphones to all the officers of BTP in March this year. Now the BTP
department officers have been equipped with BlackBerry smartphones, giving them
access to the large central database of vehicles, drivers, and offenders. Six
hundred and fifty ASIs, SIs, and PIs in the department have been provided with
the BlackBerry 8700G model and a Blutooth enabled printer for traffic
enforcement.

In 2007, six BlackBerry handsets were distributed to
traffic staff in Bengaluru on a trial basis, to experiment how effectively they
could manage the traffic. After the successful completion of the trial, in the
first phase of deployment, 280 handsets were given to traffic cops in 2007 with
an implementation cost of about Rs 1.8 crore. In the second phase, 370
additional handsets were given to the cops in March 2010, at an implementation
cost of about Rs 2.8 crore. So, now a total of 650 handsets have been provided
to the traffic officers.

The project involved participation of three
parties-handset vendor, telecom service provider, and an ISV. BlackBerry was the
selected hand-held device provider for both Bengaluru traffic and Pune traffic
deal, while Airtel and Telibrahma were the telecom service provider and ISV in
BTP enforcement automation system, respectively. The Pune department selected
Vodafone and Omni-bridge as the service provider and ISV respectively.

Telibrahma has developed the applications for this
enforcement. The specially designed application provides access to the traffic
with the database like various offenses, brief about vehicle number, etc. The
cases booked are stored in the server and repeated offenders can be identified
easily. For those who cannot pay fines on-the-spot, notices are issued and
details are put up on the server. Also registration database from transport
department is linked up to automated enforcement center.

Kulkarni informs that in case of any change/addition in
the offense, systems, or hierarchy, the hand-held devices are automatically
configured through the network. Since 2007, when the first service was launched,
the software has gone through twenty-five to thirty upgradations.

This automation initiative brings together all aspects of
operational traffic policing under one unified system, and is capable of pulling
out data of more than 2 mn cases in less than two minutes. The solution involves
vigilance through video cameras set up at different traffic signals and
equipping every BTP officer with a BlackBerry smartphone and Bluetooth printer,
which gives him access to the history of the driver & the vehicle, and allows
the officer to issue challans on the spot with the click of a button. This
secure login based application assists in determining if the offender has a
pending fine against his vehicle.

The solution also allows officials to monitor their staff
and generate periodical reports on performance.

Commenting on the initiative, Praveen Sood, additional CP,
BTP says, "The BlackBerry solution from Airtel is a powerful tool, which not
only enhances the visibility of a robust and a streamlined traffic enforcement
system but also gives us an effective way to control traffic offenses." Najib
Khan, chief operating officer, south, enterprise services, Bharti Airtel says,
"It is a privilege for Bharti Airtel to have been entrusted with this
prestigious project and is a clear recognition of our strength to deliver
customized solutions. As an industry leader, we are committed to partner and
deploy innovative solutions, such as BlackBerry smartphones, that make a
positive impact on the community."

SA Pasha, ACP, Traffic Training Institute, BTP says,
"After our tender notice for the project to select a suitable handset model,
handset makers like Nokia, BlackBerry, and Motorola participated in the tender
process. We selected BlackBerry on the basis of its cost factor and features
that best suit our purpose for the traffic enforcement system." He adds, "We
have been inspired by various traffic enforcement models in different countries
like Singapore, and adopted the suitable features to our system to best manage
the Bengaluru traffic." The enforcement system uses EDGE technology. Blakberry
was chosen in the tender based on low cost and operational convenience and
efficiency of the handsets.

Money Spinner

After the implementation of the system, BTP has witnessed many benefits in
traffic enforcement. Pasha says, "This enforcement system with Blackberry
ensures transparency in the traffic policing, and penalty amounts can not be
manipulated by the cops. In the earlier challan system, there was scope for
manipulating penalties collected from traffic violators. This transparency
ensures a whopping 75-80% more revenue collection for the department. It means
if this system is not deployed, BTP will continue to loose Rs 1.2-1.5 crore
every month! The solution has helped to ensure more discipline in the traffic,
because of fear of spot penalties for the violators. It has drastically helped
to reduce accidents because of strict enforcement." Further, the solution
facilitates to check any pending penalties to be paid by any violators as his
history can be retrieved from the database immediately, on the spot.

Kulkarni, who has been a pillar of Pasha's team to
implement and enforce the system says, "The performance of each staff at the
traffic signal can be easily monitored with the system, as their penalty
collection is recorded in the data base. If a particular staff is not booking
the traffic rule violators and imposing penalty irregularly, it will show on the
monitoring system. So, it ensures avoiding dereliction of duty."

The solution helps save time, cost, and manpower. Without
this solution, more manpower would have been required to manage the traffic. In
the challan system, the department had to depute people to go and collect fine
from the people, manage paper files, ledgers, records, etc. Now all these
cumbersome tasks are done away with. The cost of printing challans is yet
another saving aspect. In the time management aspect, real-time billing
facilitates staff not to come to the head office to submit challans, etc.

The BlackBerry solution basically can enable the
government employees to improve decision making, keep working while on the go,
increase responsiveness, reduce administration time, and access key information
immediately at the point of need.

The Challenges

The BTP faced certain challenges also while implementing this system.
Killing conservatism was the first biggest challenge for the authorities. Many
in the department were reluctant to accept this new solution thinking that the
BlackBerry smartphone will not be easy to use because they are not tech-savvy.
But the initial fear died down gradually when they were trained to handle the
smartphone.

In the new system, one of the biggest problems was that
the bill generated through a Bluetooth enabled printer could be retained for
more than two to three days. The quality of print is not like normal prints, or
as one gets in the traditional challan system. Hence, the judiciary does not
accept such a bill in case of a legal issue between a traffic violator and the
BTP. But reprinting facility is looked at now.

On asking how did the deal get signed with the Karnataka
government while the central government has been expressing concerns over
security issues regarding BlackBerry, Kulkarni says that there is not critical
data involved in this system, so no security concerns were raised. However,
Cipher coded security measure is embedded with the application to ensure
preventing data leakage.

Playing Role Model

The success of this solution has also egged other city traffic police
departments like Pune and Cochin. Traffic police department officials from New
Delhi, Gujrat, Mumabi, Pune, and Hyderabad visited BTP monitoring cell to study
how the project is functioning. They are also inspired by the BTP enforcement
model, and expressed willingness to implement the solution in their states'
cities. BTP has now the expertise to help them to implement this communication
system to effectively manage the traffic. BTP says that it is eager and ready to
help other city traffic police.

Moreover, higher officials from Cochin, Ahmadabad,
Mangalore, and Mysore have visited the city and are interested in implementing
similar technology-led traffic monitoring routine in their cities. Pasha says,
"Cities like Pune and Cochin have already piloted the project in partnership
with BlackBerry and Vodafone, while others are working toward it."

Najib Khan, COO, south, Bharti Airtel informs that after
the implementation of the second phase of the traffic enforcement automation in
Bengaluru, he has received invitations from traffic departments of other regions
in the state. "We have received interest from Mysore and Mangalore traffic
departments. We would soon start with the proof of concept, followed by a pilot
launch," he says. While BlackBerry is being used as the hand-held device for the
project in Bengaluru and Pune traffic departments, Simputer is used in Cochin.

A similar system can be implemented in other civil
departments like RTO, excise department, forest department, income tax or
property tax department, etc. Also, as part of its efforts to develop
applications for m-government initiatives, Bharti Airtel is working with various
state governments to offer mobile based services for municipal corporations,
NREGA and healthcare centers. An Airtel application has enabled property tax
collection to go online, bringing down the queues in front of payment counters
as well as enhancing revenue collection.

BlackBerry solutions have been used by many governments to
inject efficiency and efficacy in the administration. The key to transformation
is giving front-line public service workers-from police officers to social care
professionals to maintenance staff to elected council members-access to the data
they need to provide public services based around the needs of their customer
rather than the traditional view from a single public agency. Providers of
public services must have secure and continuous access to data and
communications resources wherever they do their work from.

Today, the technology to allow continuous access to data
is available in a robust and proven commercial off-the-shelf format. BlackBerry
solutions are already widely in use in many governments' criminal justice
systems, local governments, & other parts of the public sector, and are helping
transform the way public sector organizations work. This kind of solutions
enable efficiency for the owner of the application, and provides greatest
business opportinity for the ecosystem, including-service providers, handset
vendors, and application providers. There are lots of departments in India that
can utilize similar kind of solutions to increase their operational efficiency
and it would be a great opportunity for the ecosystem as well.

Kannan K

kannan@cybermedia.co.in