Of over 4K challans issued under special Holi drive, 1,204 for drunk driving

New Delhi: Drunk driving remained a major concern on Holi this year, with 1,204 people issued challans across the city — nearly the same as last year. However, overall routine traffic challans rose by 31%, while violations detected under the special Holi enforcement drive fell by 32%, according to Delhi Traffic Police data.Police issued 11,179 routine challans on Wednesday, up from 8,521 in 2025 and 7,717 in 2024. A senior officer said these included violations such as flouting air pollution norms, using pressure horns, smoking while driving, carrying goods in private vehicles and other offences.
However, under the special Holi drive this year, only 4,929 challans were issued compared with 7,230 last year. Of these, 1,204 were for drunk driving, nearly the same as the 1,213 cases in 2025. According to the data, two-wheeler riders accounted for over 900 drunk driving cases, forming the majority of such offenders."Besides the 1,204 drunk driving cases on Wednesday, the remaining 3,725 challans were issued for other traffic violations, including triple riding on two-wheelers, vehicles with tinted glass, riding without helmets and other offences," the officer said.According to the data, the western range recorded the highest count with 969 challans, followed by 884 in the central range and 857 in the southern range.This year, 22 road accidents were reported on Holi, including four fatal ones. Last year, the capital recorded 13 accidents, including six fatal ones. Holi in 2024 saw one of the highest fatality counts in recent years, with 27 crashes, including 14 fatal accidents. Additional CP (Traffic) Dinesh Gupta said personnel were deployed at 134 key intersections till Wednesday evening to maintain vigil. Police also set up 79 joint pickets with local police stations, where teams equipped with alcometers conducted checks to curb drunk driving and prevent accidents.