Go Wild On My Street: Did You Say E-Challan?

Nagpur: Signals are jumped without hesitation. Helmets hang on handlebars instead of heads. Two-wheelers squeeze through the wrong side of the road. Triple riding is rampant. Speed limits are treated as suggestions. After flouting almost all the rules in the traffic book, an e-challan notification flashes on the phone — which is promptly ignored.The numbers now confirm what daily commuters already sense: the city is sliding into a state of traffic anarchy. What was meant to be a digital enforcement revolution through e-challans is increasingly becoming a toothless warning system. With penalties going unpaid in overwhelming numbers, deterrence appears to be collapsing on Nagpur's roads.
As one commuter bluntly put it, "Camera hain, challan hi to aayega (So, what if there is a camera, it will only issue challan)… par bharna zaroori thodi hai (Who is going to pay)."Data from 2023 to 2025 shows that Nagpur traffic police issued 35.61 lakh e-challans worth ₹265.58 crore over three years. Yet only 6.51 lakh challans, amounting to ₹43.53 crore, were paid. A massive 26.51 lakh challans remained unpaid, collectively amounting to ₹228.62 crore over three years.In 2025 alone, 10.92 lakh challans worth ₹102.80 crore were issued. But only 1.29 lakh violators paid up — a compliance rate of just 9.64%. Nearly 9.46 lakh challans remained unpaid, with around ₹92.88 crore locked in pending fines.Speaking to TOI, a senior traffic official said that currently cops are only allowed to issue e-challans. "If a person violates a traffic rule a challan is issued. If he does not pay it, a Lok Adalat summon is issued. However, most of the violators ignore it. Even if they get multiple summons, they do not pay the fine. Traffic police have powers to impound vehicles, but it is not done in large numbers due to paucity of space," said the official, adding that only cases like drunk driving or some bigger violations result in impounding vehicles.The data also shows that in 2024, 13.66 lakh challans worth ₹111.16 crore were issued. Only 2.27 lakh offenders cleared their dues — a compliance rate of 14.78% — leaving 11.25 lakh challans unpaid, collectively amounting to ₹94.73 crore.In 2023, compliance was comparatively stronger. Out of 11.02 lakh challans amounting to ₹51.62 crore, around 2.95 lakh were paid, reflecting a 33.28% compliance rate. Even then, nearly 5.80 lakh challans worth about ₹35 crore remained unpaid.Within two years, payment compliance crashed from one in three violators paying fines to barely one in ten. Equally alarming is the drop in legal escalation. Cases sent to court plunged from 2.35 lakh in 2023 to just over 14,000 in 2024 and about 17,753 in 2025, indicating reduced follow-up after digital issuance.On the ground, this translates into a troubling mindset: break the rule, get the challan, and move on. A senior police official said that unless harsher actions are introduced, the fines would remain a toothless warning.Box:Year---- Total Challan---------Paid------ Unpaid----- Unpaid Amount-- Paid %2023--------11.02L-------------2.94L--------5.79L-----Rs34.99cr-------33.28%2024--------13.66L--------------2.26L--------11.25L -------Rs94.72cr-----14.78%2025--------10.92L---------------1.29L--------9.45L ----------Rs92.88cr---- 9.64%