LG directs to expedite ‘challans on WhatsApp’ system

New Delhi : Delhiites will soon receive traffic challans on WhatsApp as Lt Governor V K Saxena at a meeting held here on Thursday directed the traffic police to expedite the process.

In view of the traffic situation in the national capital, Saxena has started reviewing the situation on a fortnightly basis, expressing concern over illegal parking on roadside, flyovers, especially by buses which cause inconvenience to commuters and compromise road safety apart from increasing pollution caused by vehicular emission, they added. Saxena reviewed various issues related to traffic in Delhi.

Special Commissioners of Traffic (Zone I and II) and commissioner transport were present in the meeting, Raj Niwas officials said. The LG directed the traffic police to enhance the sensibility and presence of personnel on roads. He also urged traffic police should constitute joint teams with the transport department to check overloading of commercial vehicle and overcrowding of passenger buses. “Traffic Police, which was earlier directed to ensure putting in place a system where traffic challans are issued on WhatsApp, was further directed to expedite the process,” the Raj Niwas official said.

“This will provide timely information about the challans to violators and provide them facility to pay challan anywhere and anytime. It will also increase the rate of realisation of challans,” the official said. He also directed for installation of AI-based Automatic Number Plate recognition cameras to fetch information on traffic violation and consequent issuance of challans through SMS and WhatsApp and realisation without human interface.

Saxena also called for integrating the requirements of traffic police in this project for better coordination amongst the transport department and traffic police and to avoid duplicacy of work by both the departments.

He also asked the officials to submit a plan to shift ISBT Kashmere Gate to decongest traffic. Traffic police should identify vulnerable points of traffic congestion and deploy dedicated teams to ensure smooth flow of traffic on those roads, the official said.