By Mihir Mishra
India is shunning cheaper China-made high-speed cameras at highway tolls, citing security concerns around these devices and opting instead for American, German and Taiwanese suppliers, according to people familiar with the matter.
Officials have been directed to avoid importing sensitive technology from China and are also replacing existing Chinese cameras, the people said, asking not to be identified as the deliberations are private. India is undertaking an ambitious project to replace toll gates with cameras that don’t require vehicles to slow down, keeping traffic flows smoother and faster.
India has shortlisted three companies — one based in Taiwan, another in Germany and a third in the US — to supply video devices being procured by National Highways Authority of India, or NHAI, for use at about 1,150 toll collection sites, the people said.
The designated suppliers are VIVOTEK, a unit of Taipei’s Delta Electronics Inc., German industrial parts maker Robert Bosch GmbH and Chicago-based Motorola Solutions Inc., the people familiar said.
India’s road transport ministry, NHAI and information technology ministry did not respond to emailed requests for comments. Representatives for VIVOTEK, Robert Bosch and Motorola also didn’t respond to request for comments.
Intel-Gathering Purposes
While cameras from these suppliers are more expensive than those from their Chinese competitors, who were not specified by name, New Delhi’s stance is stemming from fears that data from equipment made wholly or partly in China could potentially be used for intelligence-gathering purposes, especially during any military conflicts, people said.
In a similar vein, the Indian government is said to be looking to bar Chinese companies such as Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. and Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co. from selling internet-connected closed-circuit television, or CCTV, cameras and other video equipment, according to a recent report in The Economic Times that cited unnamed sources.
The clampdown on Chinese video equipment, despite a recent thaw in diplomatic relations between New Delhi and Beijing, shows deeper trust issues rooted in a decades-old border conflict. Concerns about exposure to Chinese companies from technology that could be used surreptitiously for surveillance have spread in recent years among many countries that consider China a strategic rival, including the US and UK.
Washington has expanded a watchlist created in 2021 to more than 130 Chinese companies suspected of having ties with the Chinese military or that could undermine US industries. The UK banned Huawei Technologies Co. from crucial parts of its telecommunications infrastructure in 2020 following a crackdown in the US on national security grounds.
India’s Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification Directorate, or STQC, approves equipment, including cameras, that is coming into India, people said.
STQC is testing cameras meant for highway toll gates, CCTVs as well as others deployed by government departments to determine their origin and approving only ones with no critical Chinese parts, the people added.
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