From September, chances are that the minutest of traffic norms violations will not be spared. The traffic police are setting up an e-challan system in the national capital and it is likely to be in place by September. This dream project of e-enforcement of the traffic police was earlier scheduled tobe in place in April 2009.Once the system is in place, enforcement of traffic norms will become stricter and mean a lot of trouble for habitual offenders. Besides major offences, minor offences like riding a bicycle with defective brakes will also not be spared, said a traffic police official.“As soon as a vehicle’s registration number is entered in the device, it will automatically scan the server and ascertain if the vehicle is stolen, wanted in any criminal case or is on the suspicious vehicles list,” said a senior traffic police official.The traffic department has already called for expression of interest from the players who have designed such devices to give practical demonstration on their utilities and usages.A month-long practical demonstration will start within three to four weeks across Delhi. Based on their performance, the traffic department will prepare the requisite clauses and call for tenders.“We hope that we will be able to introduce the long pending e-challan system in the national capital within three months,” said Satyendra Garg, joint commissioner of police (traffic). He said that the department will purchase 1,500 to 2,000 e-enforcement machines.An e-challan is an electronic format of the challan, which will replace the traditional manual challan book. The device through which e-challan will be issued is called PDA or palmtop digital assistance. This is a GPRS enabled hand-held device that will prosecute and challan road norms violators online."Since it will be a computerised system and be connected to the central database, the prosecution history of a violator will be at our finger-tip. Besides, details of violation once stored in the device cannot be changed or tempered or deleted unlike the existing manual challan system,” said a senior traffic police officer.The device will be issued to every traffic head constable, assistant sub-inspector, sub-inspector and inspector after training. Delhi traffic police have 1,326 head-constables, 283 ASIs, 370 SIs and 62 inspectors.
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