Gurgaon traffic department collects Rs 1 crore in 26 days as fines

Traffic police has collected over Rs 1 crore in fines from erring drivers during special enforcement drives that began across the city less than a month ago.

Traffic police has collected over Rs 1 crore in fines from erring drivers during special enforcement drives that began across the city less than a month ago.

Fines were collected during a special drive to streamline traffic from August 27 to September 11 (HT File)

During the exercise, aimed at improving the traffic conditions by making city roads relatively congestion-free, as many as 29,752 vehicle owners were penalised for various violations till Sunday.

This includes nearly 1,800 vehicles towed away and 3,600 fined for wrong parking. As many as 2,020 vehicles were fined for driving in the wrong direction.

The police said 3,000 vehicles -- including 2,500 autorickshaws, 374 taxis and 126 other vehicles -- were impounded during the drives. Also, 3,500 persons were fined for not wearing seat belts and many others for drink driving.

“We have collected Rs 1.02,89,700 as challans/fines from 29,752 vehicle owners during this period at the challaning centre in Traffic Tower, Gurgaon,” said assistant commissioner of police Hawa Singh.

“These drives would continue in future as well to ensure that traffic moves smoothly on Gurgaon roads,” he said.

The drive was carried out on MG road, Cyber City, Huda City Centre and other metro stations, Sohna Road, Old Delhi Road and other areas of the city.

On Sunday, as many as 1,372 erring drivers were fined by the traffic department during a three-hour enforcement drive. This included 97 vehicles that were towed away, 256 auto drivers fined and 19 others booked for drink driving.

The traffic wing of Gurgaon police started conducting the special drives after joint commissioner of police Y Puran Kumar was entrusted the traffic wing in the first week of August. Kumar, a 2001-batch IPS officer, is posted as joint commissioner of police in Gurgaon since April 2016. This was one of the changes that the department underwent after rain triggered miles-long snarls on Gurgaon roads, including the Delhi Gurgaon Expressway, on July 28-29.

“These special drives make sense and act as constant reminders to ourselves and offenders. Sometimes, we dedicate additional resources to certain priority areas for enhanced impact,” said Sandeep Khirwar, commissioner of police.