A photo of a cluster of cameras mounted below the Punggol Flyover along the Tampines Expressway has raised a lot of eyebrows.

The photo appeared on Facebook on Sept. 9, 2019.

Many people that commented believe that these cameras are speed cameras.

Debunked

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) however, has debunked these rumours.

According to an 2018 press release, LTA revealed that these cameras are actually Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) camera systems.

The equipment help to capture vehicle number plates with greater accuracy, and will facilitate enforcement that will aid authorities in traffic management.

Additionally, these cameras are not new.

License plate recognition technology these days in Singapore is highly advanced:

LTA has been testing the efficacy of ANPR cameras, along with another technology, Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) beacons, at various locations around Singapore since March 2018.

Aside from TPE, these cameras have been mounted on other existing infrastructure, such as lamp posts or bridges near Clementi, and several points along the Marina Coastal Expressway and Central Expressway.

And it appears some other guesses in the comments section were pretty on the nose.

Testing as part of new 2020 ERP system

Contrary to what Roads.sg stated in an article, the ANPR cameras are not tracking cameras, and will not "take over" the present ERP (Electronic Road Pricing) gantries.

The cameras are also part of the new ERP system that will be progressively rolled out from 2020.

This new system will replace the decades-old current gantry system, and is satellite-based -- it will utilise Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology.

This comes after LTA awarded a S$556 million contract in 2016 to the consortium comprising NCS and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engine System Asia (MHI) to build the world's first ERP system based on satellite technology.

Top photo from SG Kay Poh / FB