Despite tech boost, fine recovery not fine

Traffic fine recovery only 30% in 9 years; 99,81,090 e-challans worth Rs 464 crore issued, but only Rs TI1 crore recovered

- Sarfaraz.Shaikh

In October 2024, Ahmedabad Police Commissioner G S Malik announced a series of measures to bolster traffic enforcement, including the launch of the Violation on Camera (VOC) mobile application and expanded e-challan generation capabilities. While these initiatives represent a significant technological leap, they raise an important question: have they effectively encouraged commuters to pay their e-challans? As the year comes to a close, it seems there is still considerable room for improvement in recovering fines from traffic violators. Data from the traffic department illustrates the persistent challenges. In 2015, the city issued 16,918 e-challans, imposing fines totalling Rs 9,97,300. Yet, only about 50% of this amount (Rs 5,53,850) was recovered from 9,496 challans.