10 January,2017 07:40 AM IST | | Shashank Rao
In a measure to rein in traffic violations, cops will soon start suspending licences for repeat offenders; digitisation the only roadblock currently
Licences of repeat offenders might get suspended
Motorists, who continue to break traffic laws with impunity, beware. Soon, if the state government has its way, your licence could be up for suspension - temporary or permanent - depending on the offence and offender. What's hindering the rollout? Just the backlog in the digitisation of crores of documents lying in files and shelves at the regional transport office (RTOs) that consist the data of driving licences, permit holders and vehicle owners.
Yet roadblocks notwithstanding, the Mumbai Traffic Police has sent the proposal to the state transport department. "We have started taking the help of technology to book traffic offenders. To take it a step ahead, we have now asked the transport department to suspend the driving licence of repeat offenders," said Milind Bharambe, joint commissioner of police (traffic).
Two prongs done
Although the nitty-gritties of the proposed suspension have not been disclosed, sources said that the three prongs of close circuit cameras (CCTVs), e-challans issued to offenders and digitisation of data at RTOs will all play a major role. Already, 1,600 high-definition CCTVs have been installed and 70 more will be installed at smaller junctions soon.
Additionally, 57 staff have been posted to dedicated monitoring of CCTVs.
Bharambe also claims that the traffic police is issuing 5,000 e-challans everyday and that within a minute of it being captured, they can send a message to the offender. The mass replacement of the pavti system for levying fines is already being phased out with 700 e-challan devices already being given to traffic cops.
Digitisation disaster
The hitch lays in the digitisation of the driver and vehicle data. "There are over five crore pages of documents across all the RTOs that need to be digitised. We have proposed that the suspension of driving licence be brought into effect once the digitisation is complete," said Praveen Gedam, transport commissioner.
In Mumbai, while digitisation for the black and yellow cabs at the Tardeo RTO has been completed, the data for private vehicles is still pending at the Wadala, Andheri and Borivali RTOs. Meanwhile, sources said that they have taken the application for learners' licence and permanent driving licence online, so all the new data will be fed into the system directly.
"To make this system efficient, there is a need to merge this data with the RTOs after they catch offenders. Once there is a central server, then the merger becomes successful wherein even if a motorist is caught for an offence by the traffic police, it reflects at the RTO too," added Gedam.
Cost of implementation
This digitisation will cost '115 crore and sources said that this was one of the reasons why the Centre decided to hike the fees for various sections under the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989. (mid-day's report yesterday) Meanwhile, the traffic cops have also started accepting payments using Paytm and debit/credit cards. Also they have approached Vodafone and Airtel for allowing offenders to pay traffic fines issued through e-challans at their centres.
