E-challan machines active on highways across 12 Maha districts
Machines will show traffic rule violations recorded against a vehicle throughout the state
PUNE: The Pune division of highway safety police (HSP) launched the use of e-challan machine for fine collection on highways in all districts under its jurisdiction on Wednesday.
“The machine will show violations registered against the vehicle across the state,” said Milind Mohite, superintendent of police, Pune division of HSP. In the initial phase, 52 machines were distributed to officials at Khandala, Wadgaon, Sarola, Bhuinj, Karad, Ujalaiwad, and Indapur highway police outposts.
In 2019 alone, the highway safety police has unpaid fines of over Rs 2,40,00,000 from rule violations. The fine remained unpaid by violators for lack of collection process. Mohite said that the new system will help in collecting unpaid fine and check road violations.
In a major push to the “one state, one e-challan” initiative, the Pune division has 158 machines functional starting Wednesday, according to Mohite. The Pune division has 12 districts under in its jurisdiction, including Pune, Ahmednagar, Solapur, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur, Usmanabad, Beed, Latur, Jalna, Aurangabad and Parbhani
According to highway safety police, not wearing seat belts and cutting lanes top the list of violations. “The weekend drivers ignore rules,” he said.
During a special drive against seat belt rule violators, the highway safety police Pune division recorded 13,000 cases in January. There were 3,800 cases of lane cutting in the same month, according to SP Mohite.
In January, a total of Rs 68,00,000 fine was levied on violators in 32,300 cases, February (Rs 58,00,000 in 27,200 cases), March (Rs 60,00,000 in 29,600 cases), April (Rs 55,00,000 in 26,057 cases).
Common categories of violations (out of 38) include not wearing seat belt, lane cutting, no documents, no insurance, rash driving, and use of mobile phone while driving. The data was released by HSP SP, Pune division office and includes cases recorded on 2,741km of national highways, 8,941km state highway and 50km expressway.
