[ChiragM]

According to a media report, Rahil Mehta, a Mumbai-based businessman, has paid Rs. 1.04 lakh after getting caught speeding on the Bandra-Worli Sea Link 103 times. The diamond trader now has the highest accumulated penalties paid since the e-challan system was introduced.



The businessman, who stays in the Malabar Hill area, uses the Sea Link to reach his office in Bandra Kurla Complex. The bridge has a speed limit of 80 km/h. However, Rahil's cars were caught crossing 100 km/h on several occasions. His Honda Accord was caught 84 times, while his BMW was caught 19 times.

The issue came to light after the said Honda Accord was seen in a no-parking zone at Crawford Market on September 23, 2018. A constable ran the car's registration number on the handheld e-challan device only to find that it had Rs. 85,000 in unpaid fines. The car was towed away and Mehta then offered to pay the penalty. The businessman did not know that his cars had so many pending e-challans as he had not received any communication from the traffic police.

Ever since the e-challan system came into force in October 2016, the police have issued more than 53 lakh e-challans amounting to around Rs. 172 crore. Of these, only Rs. 53 crore has been paid. The traffic police have now started sending out text messages to motorists with pending fines.

Source: Mumbai Mirror

Link to the Team-BHP News

[arvind71181]

Shouldn't it be the responsibility of the traffic department to ensure that the challans or notices reach the concerned person? Speeding is not right, agreed, but if the challans had reached him earlier, he might have paid up early and avoided this huge fine amount by being alert subsequently

Vehicles are recorded, fines are generated but the "last mile" connectivity, as always is missing.

[jalsa777]

There is a basic flaw in this speed ticket system put in place by the Mumbai Police (and by extension, probably other police departments across India)

Speed cameras in Mumbai are NOT accompanied by a flash light!

A speed fine is levied on a motorist to discourage him/her to continue driving at higher than permissible speed. For this to be effective, the motorist should know that they have been fined. Or else, they will continue speeding and thus the risks are not reduced. For this purpose, speed cameras internationally are generally accompanied by a flash light, these go off when you're caught speeding, and serve as an notification of your illegal activity. Sometimes, in addition to flash lights, there are displays which indicate the speed of your vehicle. All this leads to additional safety, because the person in question will be prompted to slow down.

However, it seems in India, the intention is to collect as much money as possible in fines rather than actually improve safety.

[anjan_c2007]

This was a funny case to read. There may be more skeletons in the e-challan cupboard that may come up one by one and may also entertain us no end.

The e-challan system has been introduced in many major cities of Maharashtra, since about more than eight months now. The CCTV cameras are installed at prominent roads in these cities. The video footages are checked by a control room team who even monitor if someone has parked his vehicle on the pedestrain crossing during a red signal phase.

The challan is generated and delivered to the registered home address of the vehicle owner by post. Fines are payable at the traffic office and at other centres including post offices. Compliance is not 100 %. There are many defaulters, who get along with their not paying the fines. Only if detected the next time for an offence, the earlier fines can usually be tracked. In the normal process defaulters can be tracked, but the vigilance of the traffic police on this front is lacking, that keeps on adding more and more to the list of defaulters.

[varunsangal]

Originally Posted by ChiragM

Ever since the e-challan system came into force in October 2016, the police have issued more than 53 lakh e-challans amounting to around Rs. 172 crore. Of these, only Rs. 53 crore has been paid. The traffic police have now started sending out text messages to motorists with pending fines.

It's no wonder the fines have not been collected and the traffic violations continue. There is no way to figure out if a person has been fined as highlighted in this Team-BHP News.

Unless the phone number against the car is correct, the text will never reach the correct person. This must be true of a large number of Mumbaikers, either due to changes to the numbers or plain clerical errors. I know from experience that many of car dealerships make errors transcribing address and phone numbers on forms.

I personally used to make periodic checks against my vehicle numbers for e-challans, but given the celebrity protection cover, this is no longer possible. Given lack of communication, there may be a large set of people with pending fines.