92 POS | Case Study - Traffic Police e-challan System

Police Challan

Executive Summary

Most of us may have experienced this while driving. It's quite common to be lost in a deep thought, involuntarily breaking a road traffic rule and being fined by the traffic police. And, there are others who do it just for fun to see if they can get away with it. But, for the traffic police, it's a laborious process to alert the driver, find out the details of the driver and the vehicle, issue a ticket (challan) on the spot, collect the prescribed fine amount or forward the ticket to a court.

The traffic police issues challans for people who violate the traffic rules. The violators have the choice of either compound their challans by paying the prescribed fine on the spot or go to the court at the prescribed date and time.

The term challan is generally used in the Asian countries. It generally means a receipt for payment or delivery. In this case, it means a police ticket for road traffic violation. Usually a paper-pen based voucher that is issued to the traffic offender. E-Challan, as the name says, is the electronic version of the system which is the remedy for increased traffic violation worldwide.

Challenges

One of the major challenges of using the paper-pen process was the flow of information to and from the policeman on the spot. There was no mechanism to find out information about the previous offences committed by the driver. Also, it was not possible to find out about the vehicle, whether it is stolen, involved in crime or whether it had a previous history in accident, a previous prosecution, or some pending notices.

The other aspect was it was not possible to maintain a proper track of the fines collected by the policemen.

Solution

Together with the VISIONTEK approach, the government of one of the largest states in India has established the new e-challan system. An e-challan is an electronic format of the challan. They have also established a website where one can check if their vehicle has any traffic offences registered against it. One can also find the offence description, fine amount, user charges, and the total fine amount.

The traffic police department is now equipped with handheld ePOS terminals to streamline the entire challan system. On providing a vehicle's license plate (registration) number to the terminal, the POS would instantly deliver details of the pending e-challan amounts against it. Traffic police officers would also be able to print e-challans in English and any that Indian state's regional language on-the-spot and also forward it to courts.

The device would be connected to a central database using GSM/GPRS/CDMA through which it would be able to search or access data on the basis of the vehicle number, name of the driver, parentage, and driver's license details.

Also, using this portable device, the traffic police is now able to know the status of the vehicle - whether it is stolen, involved in crime or otherwise, previous history of the vehicle or the driver in accident, previous prosecution history of the vehicle, pending notices of the vehicle.

Business Benefits

The introduction of POS terminals in the road traffic police department has multiple returns of investment. This certainly has brought more discipline on the road. All violations are recorded digitally without causing inconvenience to the violator and the challan is sent to the concerned directly to violator's address by post.

With the introduction of online verification through the police department website, the citizens can just provide their vehicle registration number on the website, know their liabilities and pay them online. All just a click away.

The VISIONTEK approach also brought in more transparency to the entire fine collection system thus significantly increasing their revenues.

About the Customer

The customer is the state police department of one of the largest states in India.

Polic Challn notes

The state government is a pioneer in e-governance and effectively uses technology to streamline all the state government processes.