In Delhi pilot project, cameras at fuel stations to check PUC validity

The Delhi government has launched a pilot project to penalise vehicle owners who have not renewed their pollution under control (PUC) certificates, by checking their PUC status at fuel stations, officials aware of the proposal said on Friday.

- Alok KN Mishra

As part of the pilot, CCTV footage of vehicle registrations from cameras installed at two fuel stations in north Delhi - at Model Town and Gulabi Bagh is checked against PUC data from the Vahan database of the Union ministry of road transport and highways, officials said, adding that around 800 vehicles have been monitored per day starting September 13.

"A private agency, which has technical expertise in the domain, has developed a mechanism which uses CCTV cameras to scan the registration number of vehicles coming to the fuel stations. These cameras have been installed at the entrance of the filling stations. Within seconds of the cameras scanning the registration number, the feed is relayed to computer monitors as well as mobile phones through the website of the agency. It flashes the status of the PUC of the vehicle after checking the status, and the PUC status is recorded in the website, and can be seen by authorised viewers," a Delhi government official said, asking not to be named.

On April 21, HT reported that the project to check a vehicle's PUC status will be based on automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) technology.