When you drive through the newly completed 63-km four-lane stretch of National Highway 75 between B.C. Road and Addahole, you will be under the constant watch of as many cameras, with one installed at roughly 1-km intervals.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has been installing different categories of artificial intelligence-enabled cameras at intervals of about 1 km along the four-lane stretch — 15 on the Addahole-Periyashanthi Package 1 stretch, measuring 15.13 km and 49 on the Periyashanthi-B.C. Road Package 2 stretch, measuring 48.48 km. These cameras will automatically detect safety violations and road hazards, including wrong-way driving, accidents, stalled vehicles, pedestrians, animals, and other obstacles, warranting immediate intervention by the NHAI.

Speed cameras

Besides surveillance cameras, the NHAI has also installed speed cameras at least two locations, one at Melkar near B.C. Road and the other at Peraje near Mani. These vehicle-actuated speed display cameras, fixed on gantries, use radar-based detection to warn road users if they are nearing the upper speed limit and to serve as a speed-calming measure. These cameras are yet to be commissioned.

There is an inconsistency in the speed limit signage at the speed camera at Peraje on the Mangaluru-Bengaluru lane of the highway. About 500 metres before the camera, the speed limit board on the left-hand side indicates 80 kmph, while another board on the right-hand side, about 200 metres before the camera, indicates a speed limit of 40 kmph.

Nationwide project

The installation of surveillance and speed cameras along NH-75 is part of the nationwide advanced traffic management system (ATMS) project of the NHAI for real-time tracking of safety violations and the simultaneous issuance of challans to enhance surveillance and road safety. The authority intends to cover more than 30,000 km of the national highway network in the next two to three years under ATMS.

NHAI Mangaluru Project Director Abdulla Javed Azmi told The Hindu that the cameras will be connected to the control room at the toll plaza at Valalu near Uppinangady. Besides monitoring the highway round-the-clock, personnel will share traffic violation details with the police to facilitate the issuance of challans.

Mr. Azmi said about 50% of the surveillance cameras have been networked, while work on networking the remaining cameras through optical fibre cables is under way.

Published - July 29, 2026 07:36 pm IST