Soon, traffic challans via SMS in Bengaluru

BENGALURU: With traffic violations mounting and vehicle owners changing their address often, sending physical challans to offenders is becoming increasingly tedious and costly for the Bengaluru traffic police.
There were 83 lakh traffic rule violations in the city in 2020. So, in order to save both money and time, Bengaluru traffic police has decided to send the challans digitally — via SMSes — to the vehicle owner’s registered mobile number.

A pilot project has already been initiated, where the electronically generated SMS challan will not only describe the type of violation, but also the fine amount as well as a link displaying a picture or video of the offence. The SMS will also have a link facilitating online payment of fines.
‘SMS proposal will save money, time’
Traffic police have tied up with the transport department and sourced details pertaining to vehicle ownership and contact details. Since it is mandatory for vehicle buyers to give their contact numbers, there won’t be any difficulty in tracking the offenders. If the mobile number of the vehicle owner is not available, traffic cops will physically visit the address mentioned in the documents and deliver the challan.
Joint commissioner of police (traffic) BR Ravikante Gowda said it costs Rs 4.5 per challan when sent via post. Each day, at least 20,000 such challans are produced for traffic violations, taking the number to 6 lakh a month and 72 lakh per year. “It costs just 20 paise per SMS. Not only money but also time and energy of police as well as the postal staff, will be saved,” he said.