Speaking to reporters, Sree Lekha, transport and road safety commissioner, said this is the first hackathon in the country on road safety.
"Three-hundred software professionals have registered to take part in the two-day road safety hackathon that begins in the Technopark campus [in Thiruvananthapuram] on Saturday," said Sree Lekha.
"We will divide them into teams of four or five and will possibly allow a virtual partner for every team. The top three would be awarded a cash prize, besides we will take forward their 'product' to its logical conclusion and make it available for the public free of cost," Sree Lekha added.
Recently-released National Crime Records Bureau figures say Kochi is the leading city in the country in rash driving/road rage cases, recording 634 per lakh population, followed by Thiruvananthapuram with 522 cases.
"Through this hackathon, we expect these IT professionals to come out with may be a mobile app for road safety, it could be a game, a new software and possibly an hardware, that could possible reduce road accidents," Sree Lekha said.
"By Sunday evening the best three would be selected and apart from getting a handsome prize money, these solutions would be taken forward and in six months with the funding of World Bank, it would be made available to the public free of cost," she said.
Of late, the law enforcing agencies which includes the State Motor Vehicles department and the Kerala Police have started taking serious steps against traffic violators as close to 17,000 people's driving licenses were temporarily suspended and collected a whopping Rs.130 crores as traffic fines in the last fiscal.
"The stringent actions of our department in suspending driving licences appear to have a good impact here and other states have now started to replicate this," said Rajeev Puthalath, Joint Transport Commissioner.
Get your daily dose of tech news, reviews, and insights, in under 80 characters on Gadgets 360 Turbo. Connect with fellow tech lovers on our Forum. Follow us on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News for instant updates. Catch all the action on our YouTube channel.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 (44mm, LTE)
Starts from ₹44,999
Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 (40mm, LTE)
Starts from ₹37,999
Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 (40mm)
Starts from ₹37,999
Haier M70 Mini LED 65-inch
Starts from ₹74,990
CMF Buds Neo True Wireless Stereo (TWS) Earphones
Starts from ₹2,199
Xiaomi TV FX Mini LED 65
Starts from ₹64,999
IFA 2026: Lenovo Unveiled New IdeaPad, Yoga and ThinkBook Laptops
IFA 2026: Nvidia RTX Spark PCs, Local AI Tools Announced With October Launch Planned
Luna Band Now Available Globally: Check Price in India, Specifications and Features