Thiruvananthapuram: Bengaluru-based private company SRIT India has acquired a controversial AI camera deal from implementing agency Keltron under the Safe Kerala Project, but only for the purpose of closing the deal. More work was outsourced to a paper company set up at the last minute. Revealed.
SRIT, which claims to have implemented 140 projects in 20 years, has subleased AI deals to a total of 5 companies. His two of them were only formed when a project to install 726 cameras across the state under the Safe Kerala scheme was considered. Another he found himself in the soup for misusing the name of a German company, the sources said.
The websites of all three companies suddenly stopped working after the AI camera deal turned into a controversy.
It is the same person on the board of SRIT who put the deal together and who heads Trois Infotech, which provided the “manufacturer’s approval” to seal the deal, the sources said.
They also questioned why Keltron, which published all other “secure” documents related to the deal on its website, did not reveal a technical evaluation tender that demonstrated SRIT’s technical expertise.
The “subcontract section” of the tender documents clearly states that the subcontract approval and subcontractor authority rests with Keltron. This is a clear violation of the code that critical tasks such as data security, data integrity and equipment configuration should not be outsourced. However, the Minister of Industry and Keltron reiterate that the company that wins the tender (SRIT) only needs to inform Keltron about further subcontracting of the project.
An administrative sanction issued by the state government on April 27, 2020 explicitly mentions that a technical committee presided over by the Secretary of Transportation must closely monitor all stages of project implementation. The same is stated in the Service Legal Agreement signed between the Department of Transportation and Keltron on May 28, 2020. The technical committee was not executed at any stage.
