SRIT’s payment recovery depends on delayed Safe Kerala funds

SRIT’s payment recovery from the Safe Kerala project depends on Rs 30.355 crore of delayed government-funded instalments being released through Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation Limited (KELTRON). The High Court of Kerala directed release of amounts due on June 19, 2026, but the September 13, 2026 departmental communication identified three unpaid quarterly requests.

Why is SRIT pursuing Safe Kerala payment recovery?

SRIT filed W.P.(C) No. 17963 of 2026 before the High Court of Kerala on May 22, 2026, seeking release of sanctioned quarterly instalments for pending Safe Kerala project quarters. The petition named the State of Kerala, the Kerala Motor Vehicles Department and KELTRON as respondents and sought onward contractual payments to SRIT under the service level agreement dated October 1, 2020.

The Safe Kerala project is a statewide artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled automated traffic-enforcement and road-safety project. SRIT stated in the writ petition that it implemented the project through an upfront capital investment and that quarterly payments were the agreed mechanism for recovering that investment. The timing of payment releases therefore affects SRIT’s recovery of capital deployed for the project.

The payment chain has two agreements and several public entities. The Kerala Motor Vehicles Department and KELTRON entered into an underlying service level agreement dated May 28, 2020, while KELTRON and SRIT signed their agreement on October 1, 2020. Government funds must reach KELTRON before KELTRON is required to remit SRIT’s corresponding contractual payment.

How much Safe Kerala funding is delayed and where is the bottleneck?

The Kerala Motor Vehicles Department’s communication dated September 13, 2026 identified Rs 30.355 crore relating to the eighth, ninth and 10th quarterly instalments. The requested amounts were Rs 9.962 crore, Rs 9.848 crore and Rs 10.545 crore, following departmental requests dated September 11, 2025, December 4, 2025 and February 3, 2026, respectively.

The Transport Commissioner’s affidavit dated July 9, 2026 said the Kerala Road Safety Authority (KRSA) had released seven quarterly instalments previously but had not released the eighth, ninth and 10th instalments despite repeated requests. Under G.O. (Ms.) No. 26/2023/TRAN dated April 18, 2023, KRSA sanctions and releases eligible project amounts after a trimonthly report from the Safe Kerala Project Monitoring Committee.

The affidavit described a sequential dependency rather than a direct state payment to SRIT. KRSA releases eligible amounts to the Transport Commissioner, who can disburse them to KELTRON; KELTRON then makes the contractual payment to SRIT. The Kerala Motor Vehicles Department stated that it could pay KELTRON only after it received the funds from KRSA.

What does SRIT receive under the Safe Kerala contract?

SRIT is to receive Rs 7.56 crore from KELTRON for each quarterly instalment, payable on a back-to-back basis within five days after KELTRON receives the corresponding government payment. Each quarterly instalment payable to KELTRON is Rs 11.79 crore under the payment mechanism described in SRIT’s May 22, 2026 writ petition.

The Rs 11.79 crore payable to KELTRON and the Rs 7.56 crore payable to SRIT arise under separate contracts. SRIT’s five-day payment timeline starts only after KELTRON receives the corresponding instalment. A release by KRSA must therefore be followed by disbursement through the Transport Commissioner and receipt by KELTRON for SRIT’s contractual payment obligation to become due.

The Kerala Motor Vehicles Department-KELTRON agreement contemplated Rs 168.90 crore for works and Rs 66.92 crore for facility-management services, aggregating to Rs 235.82 crore. That amount was to be paid in 20 equal quarterly instalments, placing the disclosed delayed eighth through 10th instalments within the project’s wider quarterly payment structure.

What has the Kerala High Court directed on the delayed funds?

The High Court of Kerala directed on June 19, 2026 that the State of Kerala and the Kerala Motor Vehicles Department release amounts due as of that date to KELTRON within one month of receipt of the interim order. The court also directed KELTRON to release the corresponding amounts to SRIT forthwith, connecting the judicial direction to the contractual onward-payment mechanism.

SRIT relied on six earlier Division Bench interim orders in W.P.(C) No. 19992 of 2023 that directed release of quarterly instalments on September 18, 2023, January 15, 2024, May 22, 2024, June 11, 2024, July 26, 2024 and January 31, 2025. Those prior orders show that release of Safe Kerala quarterly instalments had been subject to repeated court directions before SRIT filed its separate May 2026 petition.

The court suo motu added the Road Safety Commissioner of KRSA, Thiruvananthapuram, as an additional respondent by an order dated July 22, 2026. The addition followed the July 9 affidavit identifying KRSA as the authority responsible for sanctioning and releasing eligible amounts, and was intended to facilitate processing and release of project payments.

What changed after the June 2026 interim order?

The July 9, 2026 affidavit identified KRSA as the authority whose release was required before the Transport Commissioner could disburse money to KELTRON. The July 22, 2026 order adding the Road Safety Commissioner consequently brought the entity responsible for the stated sanction-and-release function into the proceeding.

At the August 6, 2026 hearing, the Government Pleader submitted on instructions that two quarterly payments would be released to SRIT from that date in the manner contemplated by the contract. The court recorded the submission and listed the matter for further consideration on September 2, 2026. The disclosure nevertheless states that the writ petition remains pending.

The disclosed August 6 commitment covered two quarterly payments, while the September 13, 2026 Kerala Motor Vehicles Department communication identified three pending requests worth Rs 30.355 crore. The source does not confirm release of all three instalments or state that KELTRON made any corresponding payment of Rs 7.56 crore per instalment to SRIT.

Conclusion

SRIT’s Safe Kerala payment recovery depends on the completion of a defined public-funding and contractual-payment chain. KRSA must release eligible funds, the Transport Commissioner must disburse them to KELTRON, and KELTRON must then pay SRIT under the October 1, 2020 agreement. The Rs 30.355 crore identified on September 13, 2026 represents three departmental instalment requests rather than a confirmed payment to SRIT.

The next disclosed matter to watch is implementation of the August 6, 2026 submission that two quarterly payments would be released, while the High Court of Kerala proceeding remains pending. The unresolved point is whether KRSA releases all eligible amounts for the eighth through 10th instalments and whether those releases result in KELTRON’s corresponding payments to SRIT.