[Rehaan]

Got a message saying that CCTV e-Challans were being handed out in Mumbai.

• The new CCTV cameras installed are uploading e-challans with the time & place of violation
• Photographs are included too
• Payment has to be made within 15 days of the incident (online)
• After 15 days, every additional day adds a Rs. 10 penalty
• Site: https://mahatrafficechallan.gov.in (Old Mumbai Police link no longer works)

So immediately I gave it a shot to see what surprises were in store

Pretty clean & straightforward landing page:


After entering your Vehicle Number you need to send an OTP to any mobile number for verification.
(Q: Will the entered number be the one where I am notified of any future challans by SMS?)


You're shown a list of all violations, with the options of "View" and "Pay Now" for each:


Viewing the violation shows the Fee, Exact Time, Location and what the Offense was:


The first of the 2 included "Evidence" pictures is a zoomed-out shot:


With the 2nd picture being a close-up of the license plate:


Wait a second...

Let me take this moment to comment that the offense in this case was "Stopping ahead of the white line".

While I fully support this system, I think they should start with serious offenses like breaking signals, going the wrong way down 1-ways, not wearing seat-belts etc. Not focus on the ones that are let down by our infrastructure (eg. stopping behind the white line, etc).

Do note where the white line is in this case (near the red car) and where the median is (ie. the physical buffer for cross-traffic, way further ahead - beside the scooter).

I'm not being defensive here (my driver is the one pictured driving), but rather suggesting a realistic way to roll-out this system in a way that will be positively accepted & reasonable. Our infrastructure is not perfect, and having people follow what it dictates to a tee can lead to other inconveniences for the flow of traffic in our heavily congested cities.

That said, another friend got the same offense at the same signal -- so perhaps it's just this people manning this one that are over-eager to hand out e-Challans for this violation?

Anyway, I am happy to support this system, so off I went to pay the e-challan...

The "Pay Now" option asks for your License Number, but its optional! Not sure what the advantage/disadvantage of entering it would be?:


Terms & conditions:


Payment options are ccAvenue payment gateway (supports the most banks/cards, and incidentally is what we use on the Team-BHP Store too) and PayTM:


I chose PayTM. It was a breeze, and I was given a link to this receipt at the end of things:



Overall a super-easy and quick system. A+ for convenience

However:
1) There was no notification given to me that there were pending violations
2) How easily it hands out violations, and for what needs some fine tuning!

[Rehaan]

Now, for the not-so-fun part!

Let's take a look at the 2nd offense registered against my car:


Is that my Vento in the shadows?


What the ! That ain't my Vento!


A closer look at the pic and this Hyundai i20 has the exact number as my Vento (MH01BBXXXX)


Maybe that's a BE not a BB? Well, I checked that variation out on coverfox.com and it claims it belongs to a Honda Unicorn. So, nope.

Wonder if this is a case of the dealer giving the customer incorrect plates (has happened to me years back!)? Or is it just a shady guy?

Not sure what I can do to contest this offense online, or have it resolved overall?

Thankfully the compounded fee doesn't seem to have come into effect (the violation was 3 months ago).

Anyway, now we also know why crazy fonts, non-english plates and non-standard sizes are NOT allowed on number-plates.

[Rehaan]

ADDENDUM:

Some more info from this official link.
(Thanks to BHPian madhu33 for sharing the link!)

A snapshot of the interesting points:

• Mumbai Traffic police personnel will be armed with a trendy hand-held wireless device, almost similar to the Nokia Communicator.
[ ]

• Everything is cashless (including on-the-spot payments by card/online wallet).

• If the user doesn't have a credit/debit-card/online wallet, a temporary license is issued (L-temp) and they have 15 days to pay the fine via bank transfer etc.

• From the 16th day onwards, a penalty of Rs 10 per day would be imposed for delay in payment. This penalty may go up to Rs 1000.
[ I think maybe they currently differentiate between automated (CCTV) challans, and those handed out to you by cops on the street. ]

• By December 2016, 6000 high resolution surveillance cameras will be installed across Mumbai.

• Cameras are aided by automated speed guns, Automatic Number Plate Registration cameras and Red Light Violation Detection cameras.
[ Though I'm guessing there's still a large amount of manual intervention. ]

• The 6000 surveillance cameras are being installed under the City Surveillance Project of Maharashtra Government. Traffic Police are just one of the users of them.
[ Mumbai is 600 sq-km. Take away SGNP and you're left with 500 sq-km. That's about 12 cameras per sq-km. 1.3 cameras per 100 sq-m. ]

• The e-Challan system is implemented with no cost to the government/taxpayers. It's privately run, with the vendor charging a ~Rs 9.50 cut per fine charged.
[ The site also stated there's roughly 20,00,000 fines per year (and this was before the CCTVs). $$$ LUCKY VENDOR $$$ ]

[Chillout]

Wow , this is definitely a good initiative to bring about some discipline and wish all states start adopting it.

However the case of cars using false number plates is scary and this may in fact lead to increased duplication of number plates. Hope they enforce strict rules for cars that are caught with improper license plates. Impound the car and put the concerned person behind bars for a minimum of 3 years.

[Eddy]

Brilliant system this.

I went and checked if a similar one existed for Delhi and to my surprise, yes it does.

https://delhitrafficpolice.nic.in/ec...nding-notices/

However, I could not (thankfully) verify the entire process since there were no pending notices against any of my current or past cars.

[Kiterunner]

I am little skeptical with this as you cannot put across your point for minor incidents as seen in first case against Rehaan. The good part however, I feel is the ease of payment and viewing the pending offense against your car.

Off Topic - I am more worried about the second ticket. God forbid, that car with same number plate gets involved in some serious crime?

[Akshay1234]

The reason why they ask for license number, is so that the offence can be recorded against your license. And apparently after a number of offences your license can be suspended, etc. So better to skip that optional part

Also yes it is ridiculous that they are going after things like stopping ahead of the white line. They should be targeting taxis, and bikes since they seem to blatantly break most of the rules. Also silly things like fining for going 2 or 3kmph above the speed limit, there has to be some concession.

[parsh]

It is a very good start. It is bound to have some lacunas which I am hoping will soon be overcome and supported with better infrastructure.

The system exists in quite a few prominent signals in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai now and works well to the basic level. This could very well scale up in coming times. Right now, they seem to be targeting and charging for WhiteLine crossing only and no other offenders and this should also give them learning time to deal and chalk actions for various scenarios.

It is bound to cause some inconvenience to the good samaritans too and we should happily bear it and try follow regulations as much as possible.

My Innova too was spotted ahead of whiteline at Gandhi Nagar Vikhroli Junction Signal and I duly paid the fine by NetBanking.

However, as said the system needs support with better infrastructure.

In my case, the differentiation between the Whiteline was not possible exactly from a distance and it is still not at this junction and one is likely to overshoot by some distance or otherwise, and I always try take extra precaution to be slow and stop at signals whenever there is possibility. In fact, my Innova was barely ahead of the Whiteline as I observed in the snap. But I would not contest that.

There could be markup boards on either side where the WhiteLine is placed as the line itself becomes too dusty and invisible due to the environment which is what I have observed at our signal.

Additionally, even if you want to follow signals and try to stop, it is entirely possible that signal turns while you are going to get into it and you will brake. That process itself may overshoot the whiteline with stop happening ahead of it.

Another issue Rehaan brought up with the similar(identical?) number plate and being charged is quite an headache.

They do need some higher resolution captures and interpolations to get useful detailing that will avoid such mishaps.

I fail to understand how this sort of thing is going to be resolved. It is again going to end up with good samaritans banging their heads against dead walls?

Hope the Mumbai Police are listening and do have answer to this.

They should atleast have a link there to contest the issue by owner, related party as they have record for Vento too.

[PPS]

Just put in my car's number & there is a speed violation by my driver & the fine is Rs 1,000 for the offence committed last November on the Sealink! Will ask my Dad to foot the fine. Funny thing is i drive every Saturday morning to work via the Sealink & i do well over 100 kmph & so does my driver every weekday!! I guess the camera just randomly catches you.

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by PPS

Just put in my car's number & there is a speed violation by my driver & the fine is Rs 1,000 for the offence committed last November on the Sealink! Will ask my Dad to foot the fine. Funny thing is i drive every Saturday morning to work via the Sealink & i do well over 100 kmph & so does my driver every weekday!! I guess the camera just randomly catches you.

Given that the sea-link is not only a camera, but also a radar gun (to detect the speed) -- I have a feeling it might be only in particular lanes at the moment as a trial? Or perhaps it is one device that can pick only 1 lane at a time?

[PPS]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Given that the sea-link is not only a camera, but also a radar gun (to detect the speed) -- I have a feeling it might be only in particular lanes at the moment as a trial? Or perhaps it is one device that can pick only 1 lane at a time?

In the screenshot, my driver is driving in the middle lane(2nd lane from left) and the pic is of the rear of the car. I guess the camera may not be able to detect the corner most lanes, but i'm not very sure of this.

[pande_monium76]

I think this is a great initiative and is already serving as a huge deterrent:

Last night, out Uber driver refused to take a small left near our house (this was at 1:00am) and the left light was not yet green and he pointed comment was "the cameras are there and I will get a challan".

I do agree that the police should also prioritize other aspects, but that is a feeble excuse for all of us not to obey the basic laws.

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by pande_monium76

Last night, out Uber driver refused to take a small left near our house (this was at 1:00am) and the left light was not yet green and he pointed comment was "the cameras are there and I will get a challan".

Yes!

A few days back I was crossing the street at the busy Kemps Corner junction and I noticed that EVERY car had stopped behind the white line (which honestly is very far back in this case).

I've only seen this happen at this signal once before in my whole life, perhaps it was the doing of one or two responsible drivers leading the pack. However, now I wonder if this new system is in some way responsible.

All it takes at signals is for a few people to follow the rule, and the rest will do the same. Once you reach that tipping-point, Social Conformity takes over:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AegLdB7UI4U

[krackr]

Thanks. This is useful. Thought this was a hoax when I got this as a Whatsapp forward.

So I tried checking this with my car number. And I get this.


Clicking on the 'view' link, I see this screen. The offence reads - No Parking.


However, there is no evidence attached with it. Though can see that GPS coordinates are provided. And I am sure I have not visited the place indicated by those coordinates. The place is a bit far from my office, so I may have passed that way, but surely not parked over there. So is it that this challan can be challenged?

[karan561]

Thank You Rehaan for this thread, much needed info coming at the right time because the buzz for these e-challans is now gaining momentum

Originally Posted by Rehaan

While I fully support this system, I think they should start with serious offenses like breaking signals, going the wrong way down 1-ways, not wearing seat-belts etc. Not focus on the ones that are let down by our infrastructure (eg. stopping behind the white line, etc).

BULLS-EYE !

Completely agree with you there, though this is a good step but they just want to milk us with fines & not really wanting to do the other difficult work.

Lets hope for the best soon