Mumbai: Following Mumbai Police’s footsteps, the Navi Mumbai police too have begun penalising traffic offenders through the e-challan system. Over three years after the e-challan system was introduced in Navi Mumbai, 200 e-challan machines were given to the local police department only in April this year. The data collected from police revealed over 2,100 e-challans were issued to traffic offenders in a span of 45 days. In February, officers of Mumbai Police were authorised, just like the Mumbai Traffic Police, to use the e-challan system to penalise offenders. Following suit, Navi Mumbai Police too joined the ranks, for which they underwent special training to operate the e-challan system.
Since the installation of 573 CCTV cameras by the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) and the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), 14,588 motorists have been served e-challans and Rs 20.79 lakh in fine has been collected. A senior police official said, “The recovery rate of e-challans has been very low. A number of reasons are responsible for the low recovery rate as 10 percent of e-challans were returned due to wrong address provided on the vehicle registration portal. To improve the recovery rate, senior policemen of local police stations were also given the e-challan machines, giving them power to penalise the traffic offender and collect any pending dues.”
The local police were empowered to issue e-challans under Motor Vehicles Act for offences like speeding, helmet-less riding, driving without a seat belt and riding triple seat. However, only traffic police can take action against drunk driving and illegal passenger transportation in private and goods vehicles, said a police source. “This is an impressive move as it will help the already short staffed traffic police department and improve the recovery rate of e-challans. Also, the e-challan system has eliminated the corruption allegations as the entire process is based on transparency,” said Sunil Lokhande, deputy commissioner of police (traffic).
