Traffic fine collection goes cashless in Bhubaneswar

BHUBANESWAR: Traffic offenders in the state capital and Cuttack need not pay their fines in cash any more. Taking a cue from state transport department, the commissionerate police here launched e-challan system on Monday, enabling traffic violators to pay their fines through debit or credit cards.
“Cashless transactions are convenient. We hope the e-challan system will help improve transparency and reduce paperwork. It will also allow better enforcement of traffic regulations,” DGP RP Sharma, who inaugurated the project on Monday, said. The highest revenue through fine collection in the state comes from Bhubaneswar Police. Last year, around Rs 3.31 crore was collected in fines from nearly 1.2 lakh people here. And all of it was in cash.

“We were often forced to keep valuables of traffic offenders as security deposit when they didn’t have cash. We would also let them go to nearby ATMs to withdraw cash. It was all very inconvenient. Now, it should be easy,” a traffic sub-inspector said.

The point of sale (POS) devices, used to swipe debit and credit cards, will be provided by HDFC Bank. “At least 160 POS devices will be used. Our enforcement squads will no longer give manual challans. E-challans will be generated by the POS machines after collecting fines, either in cash or card,” commissioner of police Satyajit Mohanty said.

Besides fines, the POS machines will also be used for various licence fees in the offices of the commissioner of police and deputy commissioner of police. “We will continue cash transactions, but encourage people to make use of the cashless system. Police personnel will also be relieved they won’t have to carry all that cash to the treasury,” Mohanty added.