Till now, it was the only the camera flash that made you guess instantly about erring on the road. Soon, you will also be alerted by SMS and e-mails so that you learn of your violation in no time, and for sure.
If all goes as planned, the State Motor Vehicles Department will soon start notifying errant motorists of their violations though text messages. The new system, which is expected to be operational by the end of May this year, will replace the long-drawn process involved in tracing the violators, issuing notice and waiting for their response.
“On committing violations, the vehicle owner will immediately receive an SMS alert on his/her cell phone, which will be also followed up with e-mails at regular intervals”, said a top official with the department. The system will provide offenders with details of their violations, like the time, date, place, car plate number, the type of violation, and the penalty amount”, he said.
To enable the step, the department is currently in the process of preparing the data base of the nearly 75 lakh vehicle owners in the State, including their mobile numbers and e-mail ids. The data thus collected are being converted into the digital format in a phased manner.
The department also intends to make the SMS facility to be used later to inform the public of the dates for renewing their vehicle registration and driving licences.
Meanwhile, the department has incorporated a payment service module in its official website.
“The system, to be operational by April, provides the two options of paying the stipulated fine or challenging the notice while the repeated offenders will be shifted to a separate head, where they will require to pay a hefty fine”, the official explained.
More join ‘bicycle club’
The scorching summer may have forced them to travel in the comfort of an air-conditioned sedan.
But the love for a pollution-free ride among the members of the ‘bicycle club’ at Infopark here remains steady going by the enthusiastic response to the green initiative since its launch in June last year.
About 305 users have taken more than 1,900 rides within and outside the Infopark campus from June to February this year, revealing the enthusiasm for a bicycle ride among the techies.
The bicycle club, which is a joint effort by Infopark and Athi Bicycle Club, operates on SMS-based services where the users can lock and unlock the cycle by sending an SMS to 9645511155.
The users will get SMS replies on details of the number lock and usage fee. Registration for membership in the club and the first 50 hours of usage monthly are free. For every one hour after this usage period, we will charge Rs. 2 but even that’s done only if the service is utilised before 9 a.m. and after 6 p.m.,” says M.S.Athirup, founder of Athi’s Bicycle Club.
The youngster pointed out that the objective of the project is to encourage techies to adopt an environment-friendly mode of transport.
(By Hiran Unnikrishnan and G. Krishnakumar)
