‪Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to add 40 cameras to curb late night bike racing in Mumbai‬‬

BMC is installing 40 license plate tracking devices or speed cameras on highways and important roads in South Mumbai, according to media reports. The measures are an effort to curb late night overspeeding, and racing by biker gangs. The cost for installing cameras and maintaining them for a year will cost the BMC 2.14 crore. The cameras will be installed on Marine Drive, the Eastern Express Highway and the Western Express Highway. The cameras will be equipped with an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system, according to a report in the Asian Age. The ANPR system will be able to automatically recognise the characters on the number plates of speeding vehicles. If there is over speeding, the action against the offending drivers can be taken through electronic challans. Late night bike racing and overspeeding pose a threat to other motorists, and have caused accidents in the past. According to a report in TOI, the police find it difficult to catch these drivers as the racers scout for police activity along the route before overspeeding. Usually the police get reports of racing from other motorists. Now, cameras could help the police to track down the miscreants and penalise them. The police are planning to suspend or cancel the licenses of repeat offenders.