Traffic police get tough, haul 1.73 crore through e-challan

CHENNAI: The e-challan system for collecting traffic fines has been a runaway success. Three months after it was introduced in Chennai, the number of cases booked and the money collected as fine have doubled.
In September, the e-challans netted 1.73 cr compared to 83 lakh in June. Nearly three lakh traffic violators were booked.
Data sourced by TOI shows that drunken driving cases rose month over month since June, doubling in September.Riding without driving licence rose by over 230% in the same period. But fines from helmetless riders netted the most money. At 30 lakh, the fines increased 20 times compared to June. This category stood second to signal violations, which brought in over 85 lakh.
Defective number plates was the third biggest earner – at 21.3 lakh. Driving while talking on the cell phones seems to be emerging as a serious offence. Over 850 cases were booked in September compared to 465 in June, and the fines increased to 4.6 lakh from 1.7 lakh.
Police officers were quick to attribute the spurt in fine collection and cases booked to the e-challan system. “The e-challan system helps in many ways. It helps to create a strong database, control vehicle theft, and identifies repeat offenders,” said additional commissioner of police (traffic), Sanjay Arora said.
Documents obtained from the traffic police show that fines for traffic violations brought in 20 crore last year.
Between 2006 and 2010, the fines netted over 86 crore, including 6 crore from not wearing helmets, 77 lakh from not putting on seat belts and 75 lakh from not having valid driver’s licences.
With the introduction of the e-challan system, the police may be able to record a 20% increase in fines this year.
Chief minister J Jayalalithaa personally introduced the e-challan system on June 28. The government procured about 300 e-challan hand devices for 2.83 crore.
The e-challan helps beat policemen crack down on stolen vehicles. For instance, if any stolen vehicle is booked for a violation the e-challan system will be able to identify the origins of the licence plate, including the type of vehicle and other details.
This information has been obtained from the transport department and rests in the server to which the e-challan system device communicates constantly. The server has records of all the 32 lakh vehicles in the city.