The owners of the vehicles will have to pay traffic e-challans within three months or their driving license will be suspended. And the drivers who have collected three challans for reckless driving or going past a red light within a financial year may even have their driving licences suspended for not less than three months.
Apart from this, the draft rule also proposes linking vehicle insurance premiums with traffic e-challans. Because of this, if a driver has two or more outstanding challans in the previous financial year, he or she may be required to pay an additional amount of vehicle insurance premium.
This rule initiated to decrease accidents annually
India has a whopping number of road accidents, associated deaths, and injuries annually. Earlier, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said that India had around 480,000 road accidents, causing 180,000 deaths and nearly 400,000 grievous injuries. He laid special emphasis on the fact that among these fatalities, 140,000 were people between the ages of 18 and 45 years, with two-wheeler riders and pedestrians being most at risk.
Furthermore, Gadkari pointed out that the accidents result in an economic loss of three percent of the country's GDP.
To stem that, the government has a variety of measures planned. The government has raised the penalty amount for violation of many different traffic rules. In most cases, the violators don't pay the fines even when imposed.
The government also plans to put in place an overall standard operation procedure upon realizing that certain delhi challans go unpaid because of delayed notifications or misplacement. For this, the government plans to put in place minimum requirements for traffic cameras and regular reminders to vehicle owners regarding unpaid fines every month.
Delhi has the lowest number of e-challans recovery
Statistically, Delhi has the lowest traffic challan recovery rate of only 14 percent, followed by Karnataka at 21 percent and Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh both at 27 percent. Meanwhile, Maharashtra and Haryana have traffic challan recovery rates of 62 and 76 percent, respectively.
Also check: Vehicle Owner Details Online in Delhi
Conclusion
The measures suggested by the Indian government to enforce traffic e-challans more strictly are meant to enhance road safety and have better compliance with traffic regulations. By connecting non-payment of fines to the suspension of driving licenses and increased insurance premiums, the authorities are trying to make the offenses more punishable. With a large number of road accidents and financial losses occurring annually, the steps are imperative in making the roads in India safer. Moreover, having a standardized procedure for challan recovery and reminders will decrease unpaid fines and enhance traffic discipline overall. As these draft rules advance toward implementation, car owners need to be careful to clear their e-challans in time so as not to incur penalties.
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