Traffic e-challan to be issued in 15 days as Centre tightens noose for violators

If vehicles are found flouting traffic rules, expect electronic challan, or e-challan, to reach home of the owners in just 15 days from now. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has modified the Central Motor Vehicle Rules to allow electronic monitoring of traffic violations and enforcement of rules.

The MoRTH shared the details of the move today. It said, “The electronic enforcement devices include speed camera, closed-circuit television camera, speed gun, body wearable camera, dashboard camera, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), weigh-in machine (WIM) and any such other technology specified by the State Government."

The state governments have been asked to ensure that the devices are placed at high-risk or high-density patches on all national highways, state highways and other critical roads in major cities where population is more than one million population. The move is to reduce number of traffic violations across the country and ensure that law takes its course. There are about 132 cities mentioned in the notification.

The ministry also said, “The notice of offence shall be sent within fifteen days of the occurrence of the offence and the electronic record collected by way of electronic monitoring should be stored till the disposal of challan."

The e-challan system already exists in several cities, including Delhi, where the notice is sent to the owner of the vehicle found flouting traffic rules. The ministry now intends to increase the ambit to more places and make it more effective with the help of devices like body wearable cameras or dashboard cameras to record the offence.