The Kerala High Court has directed the state government to provide reasons for not disbursing the alleged dues to SRIT India Ltd, a Bengaluru-based technology infrastructure company, for its work on the state-wide AI-enabled automated traffic enforcement and road safety project under the Safe Kerala initiative.
Court's Directive
Justice A A Ziyad Rahman, presiding over a single bench, instructed the state government to file its response by June 19 on a petition filed by SRIT India Ltd. The matter has been adjourned to the same day for further hearing.
Allegations by SRIT
In its petition, SRIT claimed that a sum of Rs 36.95 crore remains outstanding as quarterly payments due to the company. Additionally, the company alleged that other amounts were released only after prolonged and arbitrary delays. The counsel for SRIT further submitted that the company has been incurring a recurring expenditure of nearly Rs 40 lakh per month for the maintenance of cameras and monitoring systems.
Project Details
The Safe Kerala project involves the installation and operationalisation of AI-enabled enforcement systems at 726 locations across the state. It also includes the establishment of 14 district control rooms and a central control room, along with supporting IT infrastructure, mobile enforcement systems, and allied facilities.
Background of Litigation
Earlier, several petitions challenging the project were filed before the High Court by V D Satheesan, then Leader of Opposition and now Chief Minister, among others. Subsequently, a division bench headed by the Chief Justice held that there was nothing improper in the implementation of the project. The petitioner now contends that, despite the conclusion of the litigation, the outstanding dues have not been released.
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