New e-device to put brakes on traffic law offenders

Electronic challan project likely to be implemented early next year

If you are a serial violator of traffic rules, you will not have it easy anymore. Traffic cops across the Capital will soon carry a special GIS and GPRS-enabled handheld device which would instantly identify habitual offenders.

If everything goes according to plan, issuing electronic challan would become a reality from the start of the next year as Delhi government cleared the electronic challan project of Delhi Traffic Police on Wednesday.

Once the system is in place, traffic norms will be enforced strictly, spelling trouble for the habitual offenders.

The moment a traffic violator’s information related to his driving licence or vehicle is fed into the device, it will go through the  central database to check if the vehicle was involved in any previous violations, is stolen or on the list of suspicious vehicles.

While the traffic police are likely to induct 1,200 handheld devices, the officials said they are likely to make a part of them operational by the year-end.

“Supply orders would be issued in a day or two. The vendor usually needs 90 days to make all the devices operational. However, we are trying to make at least 100 devices functional by the year-end,” said joint commissioner of police (traffic) Satyendra Garg.

Registered vehicles

Traffic officials said the central server will have the data of all the registered vehicles in the city as well as the list of all the driving licences issued by the transport authority here.
Besides, the database will also contain details of all the notices sent to vehicle owners, offences committed by drivers, stolen vehicles, cars entitled to have a red beacon and vehicles which have the permission to enter the no-entry zones.

The data of vehicles registered in the NCR and other states is likely to be fed in the future.

“The updated data would help in scanning driver’s entire history and that of the vehicle. As soon as a vehicle’s registration number will be entered into the device, it will automatically scan the server,” said Garg.  

“In moments it would be ascertained if the vehicle or the driver has been invloved in any traffic violation, whether the vehicle is stolen, wanted in any criminal case or is on the suspicious vehicles’ list. Action would be taken accordingly,” he said.

The Motor Vehicles Act has a provision for meting out a hefty punishment to those who violate traffic rules often over a period of three years.

The device’s features include 16 GB memory, six-hour battery backup and an in-built
camera. It can be used to acccept fines through credit and debit cards, issue challans offline in case the device is disconnected from the server.

“The prosecutors would also have an extra battery. Even if the device gets disconnected from the server, it would be able to issue 500 challans. The moment it would get connected to the server, all the previous data would get updated on real-time basis,” added Garg.

The entire cost of implementing the project is around Rs 14.25 crore, payable over a period of three years. The vendors – Bharti Airtel – would raise their bills against the number of devices used on a monthly basis.

However, the traffic officials expect to recover the entire cost in 2-3 months. “Currently, the gross revenue through challans is around Rs 5 crore, which is likely to double with the introduction of e-challan devices,” said a senior traffic official.

Traffic cops would conduct a special training session for the prosecutors to impart knowledge about using the device.