The next time you get caught for a traffic offence you will have to digitally sign the fine receipt and collect a printout on the spot. Chennai city traffic police is in the process of rolling out an e-challan system that would bring down instances of policemen seeking bribes and help monitor repeat offenders.
Pilot implementation
A pilot implementation is currently under way and 21 hand-held devices are being used at various junctions. Eventually, the traffic police would deploy 300 such devices, which have been procured through World Bank funding.
Bangalore pioneered the introduction of an e-challan system through the use of Blackberry devices to record all offences digitally in a central server. A number of other cities such as Delhi and Hyderabad have begun introducing similar systems.
Explaining how Chennai's system works, Sanjay Arora, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), said, “Once a vehicle is flagged down for an offence, the registration plate details are entered into the device. Communication is established through GPRS with a central server that houses the records of all the 32 lakh vehicles in the city, which then throws back a description of the vehicle. If there is a match, the offence is booked, an e-receipt is recorded and the details are stored in the server. In case the registration number does not match with the description, it could be a stolen vehicle and investigations could commence.”
Through this digital footprint, repeat offenders can be tracked and the police can analyse the type, nature and location of traffic offences easily, he said.
Evading fines would become tougher as the offence history would remain attached to the vehicle's registration number even at the RTO office.
Since each traffic policeman is given a unique password to operate the hand-held device, there will be greater transparency in accounting for fines collected. “The system cuts out room for arbitrariness ,” Mr.Arora added.
Online fine payment
Once the e-challan system comes into effect in a full-fledged manner, facilities such as online payment of fines and payment through credit/debit cards will be available.
