Gave a fake number to traffic cops? Your challan may still find you

The Delhi Traffic Police receive around 60,000 challan-related updates every day, and traffic personnel issue almost 20,000 challans daily to the correct recipients.

Explaining the process, an officer said that during traffic violations such as red-light jumping and over-speeding — where drivers are stopped by traffic personnel on the road — the officers typically ask the driver for their driving licence.

But many people have not linked their driving licences with their current mobile number. In such cases, some offenders intentionally provide incorrect mobile numbers so that they do not receive challan notifications relating to their vehicle, police officers said.

Under the new system, traffic personnel will ask for the offender’s current mobile number and verify it through an OTP sent on the spot. “If the person gives the wrong number, the OTP will not be received,” the officer said.

After verification, the traffic personnel will not only issue the challan through the OTP-based process but will also update the offender’s current mobile number on the government’s VAHAN portal.

“This exercise will help the traffic police streamline the challan process to some extent. However, challans issued through ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) technology will continue to be sent to the mobile number linked with the vehicle’s registration number,” the officer said.

ANPR, or License Plate Recognition (LPR), is a technology that uses optical character recognition on images to read vehicle registration plates, creating searchable, machine-readable data for traffic enforcement, tolling, and security. It captures images via dedicated traffic cameras or CCTV, offering 24/7 monitoring, automated toll collection, and real-time alerts for law enforcement.

Traffic challans for offences such as over-speeding, red-light jumping, and not wearing helmets are issued either on the spot or through ANPR technology.

The Delhi Traffic Police has a strength of around 7,000 personnel, with 80 per cent of the staff deployed on field duty. They handle more than 30 lakh vehicles every day to ensure proper traffic regulation on the streets.