Journalism of Courage
The Chandigarh traffic police issued 602545 traffic challans, which are more than 50 per cent of the total estimated population of Chandigarh, in 2022. This means every second Chandigarh resident was challaned last year.
The challans were issued between January 1 and December 31, 2022. Over 60 per cent of these challans were issued based on CCTV cameras installed throughout Chandigarh under the Smart City project. The challans issued in 2022 were 61.44 per cent more than those handed out in 2021 at 232319.
The highest number of challans, 186971 out of the total, were issued for over-speeding followed by 180659 for red light jumping, which falls under the category of dangerous driving. These 367630 challans along with 67866 for zebra crossing were issued based on CCTV camera footage.
A police officer said, “Indeed, the number of challans issued in 2022 is very high but in many cases, multiple challans were issued against single traffic rules violators. There are thousands of vehicle drivers who were challaned for more than six times. More than 2,900 driving licenses were recommended for cancellations as the drivers were caught for multiple offences. These were even included government drivers also”.
“The CCTV cameras installed under the Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) which was functional in May 2022 have made a huge contribution to catching the traffic rules violators. We do not compare the total challans with the overall population of the city,” added the officer.
The high-resolution CCTV cameras were installed at 40 traffic junctions. These cameras are equipped with automatic number reading recognition (ANRR) software. Over a dozen police personnel also work round the clock at the Police Command and Control Centre (PCCC) set up in Sector 17 to monitor and issue challans for violations detected.
Riding without a helmet also constituted a large percentage of violations as 45856 two-wheeler riders were challaned for the offence. Interestingly, 35054 challans were issued after netizens captured the violation on their mobile phone and shared it with the police through social media or traffic staff recorded these through handy cams.
As many as 2346 drivers were challaned for the wrong side driving, 6924 people for driving motor vehicles on the cycle tracks, 386 for dangerous driving, 35792 for wrong parking, 3849 for wrong stopping, and 24484 drivers were challaned for lane changing and zig-zag driving etc.
