City residents can finally pay their traffic challans online, as the e-challan system, which was being developed and tested out by the traffic police, was launched by Punjab governor and UT administrator VP Singh Badnore at a virtual conference on Friday.
E-challaning will include compoundable traffic offences for which traffic police are authorised to collect the payment. Challans for which fines are collected by the court, including drunken driving, dangerous driving or juvenile driving, won’t be covered in this. Besides, challans where the driving licence is seized are also not included.
The payment can be made on-the-spot through one of the 200 handheld devices provided by Axis bank to the UT traffic police for free or online through the central government’s e-challan portal. On-the-spot payment can be made through debit or credit card, while online payment offers multiple channels and involves no additional costs.
“The UT traffic police have modified the central e-challaning system. Rather than risk their lives by stopping vehicles, cops have been asked to take down the registration numbers of offending vehicles, based on which warning letters are sent to their registered addresses. The driving licence of habitual offenders can also be suspended online, and the e-challaning system will be digitally linked to courts,” said Shashank Anand, deputy inspector general of police (DIG, traffic).
The traffic police have sent a bulk SMS to over 60,000 offenders with traffic violation information slip (TVIS), informing them how to pay their challans.
{{/usCountry}}The traffic police have sent a bulk SMS to over 60,000 offenders with traffic violation information slip (TVIS), informing them how to pay their challans.
{{/usCountry}}Speaking about the benefits of e-challaning, deputy superintendent of police (DSP, traffic east) Charanjit Singh Virk said the process will be more transparent and will allow the authorities to take action against habitual offenders.
DSP Kewal Krishan said for some offences like not wearing helmet, where the driving licence was suspended, spot payment can be made, but the traffic police will seize the driving licence of the offender and forward it to the Registering and Licensing authority. The offender will be given a form on the spot.
New traffic police website goes live
To aid the payment of e-challans, UT administrator VP Singh Badnore also inaugurated traffic police’s new website https://chandigarhtrafficpolice.gov.in. This is the first official website to be hosted on National Informatics Center (NIC)’s Chandigarh State Cloud.
Along with being able to pay their challans, residents can also use the website for getting their driving record history (useful for those migrating out of India) and no-entry permission (permission for heavy vehicles to enter the city outside permitted hours). The website also provides details of how to check pending challans against your vehicle and how to use the police’s towed vehicle app.
The governor also released the annual Road Safety Report. As earlier covered by the Hindustan Times, there have been 104 fatalities in 100 fatal accidents in 2019, a slight increase over 98 fatalities in 97 fatal accidents in 2018. This report also presents various traffic management initiatives taken by the traffic police to manage traffic congestion in the city.