The Thane Traffic Police on Thursday put the e-challan system into effect, doing away with paper receipts and enabling transparency in the penalisation of errant motorists.
The system was kicked off by Thane Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar with the inauguration of the e-challan machines, which allow payment of fines through credit or debit cards and are synced with the data of vehicle owners available with the Regional Transport Office.
“We have 300 machines which have been provided to Traffic Police personnel across the commissionerate. Apart from enabling cashless payment of fines, the system will also help the personnel to check whether any motorist caught violating traffic rules has previous offences against him,” Mr Phansalkar said.
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Traffic police officers said handheld devices are also linked to the Regional Transport Office database, and all offences against motorists will be added to the details in the RTO database on a regular basis.
“There have been instances where motorists have tried to obtain new licences after their old ones were seized for violations. The new system will automatically raise a flag as soon as their application for a new licence in added to the system, putting a check to such practices as well,” an officer with the Thane Traffic Police said.
The officer said that as all the details, including the amount of fines collected from errant motorists, will be updated in the server in real time, it will also eliminate the scope for corruption, as police personnel will be bound to either collect the exact fines applicable for the particular offences or explain why the same was not done.
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The Mumbai Traffic Police has already been implementing the e-challan system, along with a host of other high-tech measures, in order to curb traffic rule violations and decrease casualties and fatalities due to rash driving.
In 2017, the traffic police’s efforts were aided by speed cameras installed at strategic locations in the city, which can capture number plates of vehicles overshooting the prescribed speed limits.
Due to the speed cameras and e-challan system, cases of overspeeding registered by the Mumbai Traffic Police soared to 7.8 lakh in 2018 from around 25,000 in 2017, officers said.