OREANDA-NEWS. December 09, 2009. OAO ARMADA (MICEX, RTS: ARMD) announces that it has won the tender for the contract to develop an off-the-shelf automated system for the registration of traffic violations using video recording equipment and the management of fines. Once implemented, the solution will bring Russia in line with the European road safety level, and simplify the procedure for paying and managing fines for road traffic participants and the State Road Traffic Safety Inspection, while also generating additional revenue for regional budgets.

The nationwide project launched by the Road Traffic Safety Department of the Interior Ministry of Russia is aimed at enhancing road safety in the country. In the estimation of the World Bank, Russia’s road traffic accident mortality rate exceeded similar rates of European countries by a factor of 5 or 6 in 2008. As such, road traffic accidents on sections of road equipped with automated speed controls contracted by 86% in France. In a bid to deploy similar equipment to match the European level, Russia needs to install over 100,000 devices and integrate them together.

The amount needed to finance the development of the off-the-shelf solution (26,8 mln RUB) will be provided as part of the federal target program “Electronic Russia.” ARMADA won the tender in consortium with Rosbi Inform Co — the developer of the video recording solution. ARMADA will be responsible for developing the general part of the system, which involves integrating the solution with the automated systems of the Russian Post, Federal Bailiff Service, financial institutions, and developing common regulations for regions to link up to the system. Once in place, all of this will allow the system to streamline the penalties and penalty management by the State Road Traffic Safety Inspection and the Federal Bailiff Service, which will ultimately bring about a decline in road traffic accident casualties on stretches with such equipment installed.

The system could be spread further regionally with the help of public private partnerships. Under current law, the paid fines are channeled to the budget of the respective region where the violation is registered. In 2008, roughly RUB 100 mln in fines were levied per million of drivers in Russia. As a result of installing the system, road traffic mortality can shrink to fit European rates, while additional revenue generated in the area can double or even triple against the current earnings as the number of fines and the fine collection rate increases. According to statistics, video recording systems pay back in less than a year, which can have a positive effect on the timeline for the commissioning of the complexes.

President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev placed high priority on road traffic safety once again when speaking to the First Global Ministerial Road Safety Conference in Moscow on November 19, 2009. Russia has backed the UN initiative to declare the period from 2011 to 2010 as the decade dedicated to activities to ensure road traffic safety.