People were posting the pics of their e-challans, many of them being fined for speeds in the range of 50s and 60s.
BHPian PassionateDrive recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Last year in the month of March while I was driving back from Durg (CG) to Pune (MH), in the section of road which goes around the city of Amaravati, I was fined for over speeding. I realized this only when i happened to check the e-challan status on the MahaTrafficApp, somewhere in the month of August. Couple of points which were little difficult to come to terms with:
- I was caught over speeding at a speed of 87 km/hr, while the speed limit was 80. And this was a 4 lane highway.
- I was probably caught on a slope (that’s what is perceived from the picture posted on the app with the vehicle speed and the limit).
Without much deliberation with anyone, I immediately paid the challan online, having thought I was already late in paying the fine.
Fast forward to Dec 21; while I was randomly scrolling through my FB posts, on one of the groups related to traveling, I saw a lot of people commenting on the over speeding challans. People were posting the pics of their e-challans, many of them being fined for speeds in the range of 50s and 60s.
And out of curiosity, i filed a RTI query on the amount of e-Challans charged for over-speeding in the year 2021. Following were my questions:
- Total Amount of eChallan charged towards over-speeding for the year 2021.
- Total Amount of eChallan charged towards over-speeding on national highways and state highways in Maharashtra.
- Total Amount of eChallan charged towards over-speeding below 60 kms/hr in the year 2021.
- Total Amount of eChallan charged towards over-speeding between 60 kms/hr to 80 kms/hr in the year 2021.
- Total Amount of eChallan charged towards over-speeding between 80 kms/hr to 100 kms/hr in the year 2021.
- Total Amount of eChallan charged towards over-speeding between 100 kms/hr to 120 kms/hr in the year 2021.
- Total Amount of eChallan charged towards over-speeding beyond 120 kms/hr in the year 2021.
- Total Amount of eChallan received against the charges towards over-speeding in the year 2021.
Fast forward to today; I was kind of irked to see an email dated 12th Jan that my RTI query was ‘Disposed of’. Not knowing the exact meaning of ‘Disposed of’, i checked the status of my query on the RTI portal, and to my surprise, i had the answer to most of my queries! Below is the answer:
- Total challan charged for over-speeding in the year 2021: 9,91,31,19,000.00 (~991.31 CR).
- Challans charged under various speed limits:
- Challans for speeds between 60 to 80 kms/hr account for 58% of the total challans (~572.03 CR).
- Vehicle speed not known for challans issues using hand held devices, which do not store vehicle speed, these account for 13% of the total challans issued (~129.5 CR).
- Total challans received: 1,14,47,00,500.00 (12% of total challans issued).
- No data to bifurcate the challans between state highways and national highways (MH).
Couple of points worth noting:
- Total revenue in one calendar year from just one traffic rule is almost 1000 CR ! (if we suppose all that is charged is paid eventually).
- Challans for speeds below 80 kms/hr account for 73% (58+15) of the total challans (~726.21 CR).
- Unpaid challans are either to be paid or challenged in the court. If the vehicle speed is within 5km/hr of the speed limit, these can be applied to be waived off. Without addressing the challans by either of these methods, the vehicle cannot be transferred, renewed, and going forward, scrapped.
Here’s what BHPian aargee had to say on the matter:
Add to that every year, the fine gets compounded 4% annually until it’s paid in full.
The 5 Kmph waive off is essentially +/- 5 unit waive off is observed in Western countries (I know for sure in US) attributing towards error in measuring device, so, that’s perfectly acceptable.
In addition to imposing penalty with speed offenders, I would also strongly advocate for speed defenders!! Meaning, people who obstruct traffic, jay walkers, cattle owners for letting them gaze all over concrete town & people who don’t maintain minimum speed & most of all, the immediate need of the nation – driving & riding on wrong side.
And parents who’re riding/driving with children on wrong side must be imposed 10 times of the penalty not just for the offense but also being role model in doing so!!
Keyword: Statistics: E-challans charged for overspeeding in 2021