Not paid e-challan fine? Mumbai traffic police will catch you on the road

The drivers are stopped and asked to pay their pending fine through debit card, credit card or Paytm

With payment of nearly 8 lakh e-challans pending, the Mumbai police now catch vehicle owners, who are yet to pay the fine, on roads.

The drivers are stopped and asked to pay their pending fine through debit card, credit card or Paytm. (File)

The drivers are stopped and asked to pay their pending fine through debit card, credit card or Paytm. If the driver does not have money in his account, he will be asked to call his relatives to the spot. “As a last resort, we will ask the drivers to submit their licences and take it back after paying the fine,” said Amitesh Kumar, joint commissioner of police (traffic).

Recently, drivers were unable to pay the fine owing to poor network of the e-challan machine or malfunction of the device.

“There is a huge backlog of e-challans,” said Kumar. “We have taken note of the network problem. We have started nakabandis at spots where the network is good.”

Using the new way, the police have collected Rs20 lakh in the past ten days, a jump from the average Rs10 lakh. “The cash inflow has doubled due this and the backlog is also reducing,” Kumar said.

The traffic police have also tied up with Paytm, asking them to get mobile kiosks at the nakabandi spots. “We have started this at the Bandra-Worli sea link,” said Kumar.