Mishaps: ANPR-Enabled Cameras Likely On Khammam-Devarapalli Greenfield Highway

With a view to curbing frequent road accidents on the recently inaugurated Khammam-Devarapalli Greenfield Highway, the National Highways Authority of India plans to install surveillance cameras fitted with Automatic Number Plate Recognition system there.

This would also generate challans for vehicles that cross the speed limit -- 100kmph for cars and 80 kmph for trucks.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually inaugurated the access-controlled highway on August 1, 2026.

The nearly 162km stretch of the access-controlled highway has a pair of surveillance cameras for every 2km distance, with one focussing on one side of the road while the other in the

opposite direction. These cameras will record the speed of vehicles and capture

them by their registration numbers.

The highway is also having Vehicle Actuated Speed Display system installed at regular intervals so that in case a vehicle passing by it records more than the permitted speed limit of 100kmph, it indicates the speed of the vehicle in red colour as a kind of warning to the driver to slow down the speed.

However, NHAI has come up with a proposal to install ANPR-enabled surveillance cameras so that they will capture the speed of the vehicle; and in case the speed is beyond the permitted

limit of 100kmph, they will capture the registration number of that vehicle and send it to the concerned police station. The station, in turn, would generate challan and send it to the driver on his or her registered mobile phone.

Once this gets official nod, NHAI may replace the existing surveillance cameras with ANPR enabled cameras.

NHAI had taken up a study on the access- controlled highway to ascertain the causes of accidents and found some major reasons. As the road is not going through populated areas like villages and towns, and there are no openings on the medians for a long distance, the drivers develop drowsiness. They do not remain alert all the time against people and vehicles crossing the road, as such chances are perceived to be rare or nil. There, though, are such stray instances of intrusions, causing mishaps along the stretch.

Another reason for mishaps is the unauthorised parking mainly of trucks on the road. Vehicles going at high speed tend to hit them, resulting in accidents.

Thirdly, some cars are run at speeds of 130-140 kmph despite the imposition of the 100 kmph limit. This causes mishaps.

NHAI has noticed some cars running at speeds of 150-170 kmph on Gundugolanu-Devarapalli-Kovvur national highway against the designed sspeed of 80kmph.

NHAI Rajamahendravaram project director B Krishna Murthy said, “Accidents on the Khammam-Devarapalli Greenfield Highway are slowly coming down compared to the initial days of the vehicular traffic there. Motorists are getting used to driving their vehicles on this kind of a road. We are also coming up with some proposals to control road accidents.”