Mumbai: In a crackdown on traffic violators, the Regional Transport Office (RTO) has penalised private cab aggregators and collected a fine of Rs 21.78 lakh between October 15 and December 10. As a part of the special drive, RTO has suspended licences of over 235 drivers, who were found violating the traffic rules. This drive was long overdue after the errant drivers of cab aggregators started flouting numerous traffic rules.
An official said that a number of complaints against cab aggregators had been pouring in on the social media as well as police stations and the Mumbai Traffic Police (MTP) mobile application. In a crackdown on errant drivers of cab aggregators like Ola and Uber, RTO started a special drive on October 15, in which they started penalising and collecting fines. "After the drivers were caught violating rules, their history of e-challans was pulled up and all pending fines were collected on the spot. With this, we have collected fines worth over Rs 21.78 lakh, which will soon cross the Rs 30 lakh mark by this year-end," the official said.
According to the New Motor Vehicles (Amended) Act, drivers of cab aggregators found without driving licences will be fined up to Rs 1 lakh. The traffic violations like jumping Red signals, speeding, rash driving, parking at no-parking spots and driving without wearing a seat belt are among the many for which they were fined.
The errant drivers of cab aggregators who were repeatedly caught flouting the rules had to lose their driver's licence for a period of three months. If the driver was caught more than five times violating rules, his licence was suspended for more than six months, depending on the gravity of offence. "The RTO has initiated the process of suspending the licence of 235 drivers and serious action will be continued against them in the future as well," an official said.
Offences Number of cases
Vehicle found without badge 335
Driver without badge 680
Not keeping a log book 910
Vehicle without 'Tourist' mark 810
Faulty vehicles 990
Fire extinguisher missing 436
