QCOSTARICA – The Government of Costa Rica gave the starting signal for the Marchamo Digital project on Wednesday, and it was also announced that in the coming days, they will sign a decree to declare it of public interest.
This is a national, inter-institutional initiative that will modernize the digital vehicle regulation ecosystem and simplify related citizen services.
For example, the right of circulation (Marchamo) sticker will be changed every 10 years, eliminating paper and also unifying the stickers that are attached to the windshield of vehicles.
In a second stage, the project will enable initiatives towards the construction of smart cities, it will make the chip in your car move traffic during congestion, giving priority to emergency vehicles and even opening the toll needle or allowing the entrance to parking lots.
“Today I have the great pleasure of presenting the Marchamo Digital project, an inter-institutional country initiative that will modernize vehicle regulation and simplify services for citizens. With this, the vehicles will be uniquely identified by means of a chip that will send the information to a computer system and this information can be read by the Traffic Police officials,” said President Rodrigo Chaves Robles.
This adjustment will be possible thanks to RFID technology, radio frequency identification that allows objects (in this case cars) to be identified using radio waves in a unique way and being able to capture hundreds of objects at the same time.
RFID technology is similar to barcodes, in the sense that the data is captured and stored on a chip that interacts with an integrating system to orchestrate citizen service systems.
“This project will be an enabler of change for the country, it will improve traffic systems, controllers, and traffic lights. We will be able to give quick and expeditious passage to ambulances, firefighters, and the police. Also, we will have shadow tolls, which means that you don’t have to stop at a tollbooth to pay, but you go at the legal speed without having to stop and this will really make it easier for the country to modernize as the government is committed to,” indicated the Minister of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT), Luis Amador.
This means that, from the implementation of the digital marchamo, vehicles will be uniquely identified by means of a chip that will send the information to a centralized computer system, in turn, this information can be read remotely by special teams of the Traffic Police.
For the Ministry of Science, Innovation, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT), the promotion of technological and innovative development in the country is essential. In this context, it is essential to generate actions to strengthen and modernize the collection of circulation rights, through the implementation of state-of-the-art technologies, as an ideal mechanism to satisfy the general interest.
For this reason, for MICITT Minister Paula Bogantes, “the development of the “Digital Circulation Right” Project favors the provision of more modern and innovative services for citizens, which allow them to evolve towards smart cities in the Information and Knowledge Society. In addition, it will generate greater efficiency in collection, and will encourage institutional participation for new services, in coordination and support of the INS and the MICITT”.
“In the coming weeks, the INS will begin the administrative contracting processes, through SICOP, which will allow us to give life to this ambitious initiative. In addition, with the signing of the decree that declares the project of public interest, we are sure that we will be able to continue advancing with the support of many institutions for whom this initiative will be of great help,” said Mónica Araya, executive president of the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS), the state agency tasked with the collection of the Marchamo and providing the obligatory insurance.
To make the project a reality, the INS will hold two public tenders that will include the purchase of Marchamos (acquisition of radio frequency identification technology) and the integrating system (acquisition of the technological platform), a task that will start this May.
Authorities hope that its implementation of the Digital Marchamo can take place as of November 2023.
