The Ahmedabad traffic police has launched the ambitious e-challan project to penalize traffic offenders. Now, traffic rule violators will be caught on camera and e-challans will be delivered at their homes. The challan will also include a photograph as evidence of the misdemeanor. Harikrishna Patel, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), said, “The project is part of Rs 100-crore City Surveillance and Intelligent Traffic Management System (CSITMS) project being implemented in Ahmedabad, Surat and Gandhinagar. We have installed 226 CCTV cameras at 69 major traffic junctions and issued e-challans on the basis of the footage. By February, we hope to cover 90% of the city’s roadways.”
The biggest impact of the system would be identification of habitual offenders. Officials said that as per the Motor Vehicle Act, habitual offenders, who could not be identified so far, will be caught on camera and will have to shell out hefty fines for repeated offences. Police have also tied up with the RTO. “After e-challan is issued, the vehicle driver would have 10 days to respond to the notice. If he or she fails to do so, the information would be given to RTO for keeping it in records. The next time the vehicle owner approaches RTO for any work, he shall be penalized,” said Patel.
At the moment, 11 major offences including not wearing helmet or seat-belt, wrong side driving, driving in BRTS corridor, use of mobile phone while driving and wrong parking would attract e-challans. The offenders would have to go to the traffic police station with the vehicle-registration documents and pay the fine. Not answering the notice after receiving it would also attract legal action,” said officials.
