Now, pay traffic challans online

CHANDIGARH : City residents can finally pay their traffic challans online, as the e-challan system, which was being developed and tested out by the traffic police, was launched by Punjab governor and UT administrator VP Singh Badnore at a virtual conference on Friday.

E-challaning will include compoundable offences for which traffic police are authorised to collect the payment. Challans for which fines are collected by the court, including drunken driving, dangerous driving or juvenile driving, won’t be covered under this. Besides, challans where the driving licence is seized are also not included.

The payment can be made on-the-spot through one of the 200 hand-held devices provided by Axis bank to the UT traffic police for free or online through the central government’s e-challan portal. On-the-spot payment can be made only through debit or credit card, while online payment offers multiple channels and involves no additional costs.

“Rather than risking their lives by stopping vehicles, cops have been asked to take down the registration numbers of offending vehicles and send warning letters to their registered addresses. The driving licence of habitual offenders can be suspended online. The e-challaning system will be digitally linked to courts,” said Shashank Anand, deputy inspector general of police (DIG, traffic).

To aid the payment of e-challans, Badnore also inaugurated traffic police’s new website https://chandigarhtrafficpolice.gov.in . This is the first official website to be hosted on National Informatics Center (NIC)’s Chandigarh State Cloud.