Rs 81.6 crore in e-challan fines pending in Trichy

Trichy: Nearly 78% of traffic fines issued by Trichy city police through e-challans since 2019 remain unpaid, with pending dues mounting to around Rs 81.6 crore over the past seven years.Between 2019 and 2025, the city police issued challans amounting to Rs 104.7 crore for traffic and road violations. However, only about Rs 23 crore has been recovered so far, leaving a substantial portion of penalties unsettled. The e-challans cover offences such as rash driving, driving without valid licence or registration documents, using mobile phones while driving, riding without helmets, triple riding on motorcycles, and not wearing seatbelts. Violations are detected either by traffic personnel or through Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras installed across the city. Challans are sent via SMS to the mobile numbers linked to vehicle registration records, and fines can be paid online through designated portals, including the Tamil Nadu police website. Officials said a major hurdle in recovery is that many vehicle owners ignore the fines until they are required to visit regional transport offices (RTOs) for services such as renewal of fitness certificates, changes to registration certificates, or payment of road tax. Only then are pending dues flagged and clearance insisted upon before processing applications. Transport department officials said they do not intervene in e-challans issued by city police unless the vehicle owner approaches their office for a service. They added that in non-city jurisdictions, stricter enforcement measures, including suspension or cancellation of licences, are used to recover penalties. Officials from both departments attributed the delay largely to non-compliance by vehicle owners. "Many do not pay unless compelled during an RTO visit. Some even claim they were unaware of the challans," a senior transport official said. Data from the home department shows that Trichy's pending rate of 78% is higher than Coimbatore (64.7%), Tirunelveli (71%) and Tiruppur (73.1%), but lower than Madurai (86%) and Salem (81.1%). Police officials acknowledged that there is currently no dedicated mechanism to enforce timely payment of e-challans independent of the transport department process. They said steps are being explored to improve recovery. Trichy city police commissioner N Kamini said the issue of mounting pending penalties would be examined, but did not elaborate on the proposed measures.