Discount on traffic challans: Rs. 5.5 cr collected on 1st day in Hyd tri-commissionerate area

The joint traffic commissioner, Ranganath, said approximately 1,000 challans per minute were cleared on the first day. He said 80% of the challans cleared on Tuesday pertained to the tri-commissionerate of Hyderabad city. "We are extremely happy with the response and did not expect this at all," he said.

He added, "As of now, about five lakh challans have been cleared. The actual value of these challans come to about Rs. 20 crore and the amount collected is about Rs. 5.5 crore," he explained.

The Hyderabad traffic police further increased the bandwidth of the website to prevent it from crashing in case of huge traffic. "The bandwidth is 10 times more than usual," Mr. Ranganath said.

However, despite the increase in bandwidth, there were glitches due to the high traffic on the website. "We had increased our bandwidth and necessary infrastructure for this special drive by 10 times but still the system is running slow due to a large number of people accessing our Telangana e- challan website. We will further scale it up to meet the increasing demand," the traffic officer added.

He said further requested the public not to hurry to clear the challans as they have a month (till 31 March) to clear the challans.

Initially, only the Hyderabad and Rachakonda police had offered a one-time discount. But the Cyberabad police also joined the programme and soon it was launched across Telangana.

This discount is available only if a person pays the challan online. One can also go to Mee Seva centres to pay their challans.

Rachakonda traffic DCP D. Srinivas said, "Between 7 to 9 a.m, Rs. 12 lakh from e-challans was collected in Rachakonda."

Earlier, the Hyderabad traffic chief told NewsMeter that the department is working on providing some respite to people who have not paid their challans so far. "The pandemic has pushed a lot of people into an economic crisis. As a humanitarian gesture and in an attempt to ease people's burdens, the Hyderabad traffic police will provide some respite by reducing the pending challan amount by a certain percentage," the officer had said.

Discount as per the category of vehicle

· Two-wheelers and autos: If 25% is paid, the remaining 75% pending challan will be waived off.

· Pushcarts and petty vendors (39b cases): If 20% is paid, 80% will be waived off.

· LMVs, cars, jeeps/heavy vehicles: If 50% is paid, the remaining 50% will be waived off.

· RTC drivers: If 30% is paid, 70% of the pending challan amount will be waived off.

· Two-wheelers and autos: If 25% is paid, the remaining 75% pending challan will be waived off.

· Pushcarts and petty vendors (39b cases): If 20% is paid, 80% will be waived off.

· LMVs, cars, jeeps/heavy vehicles: If 50% is paid, the remaining 50% will be waived off.

· RTC drivers: If 30% is paid, 70% of the pending challan amount will be waived off.