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hen the Punjab Safe City Authorities was established in 2015, with the stated mission of checking street crime as well as traffic violations detected via surveillance cameras and automatic vehicle number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras that had been installed in several streets and roads across Lahore, e-challans were routinely sent to the addresses registered against the vehicles of the violators. Later, as the PSCA had a digital portal up and running, the citizens were expected to find out about their e-challans and make necessary payments online. Today, a large number of violators have been identified as defaulters. The city traffic police are determined to catch up with them.
“The unpaid e-challan fines total up to Rs 6 billion province-wide,” says CTO Dr Athar Waheed. “It’s time we recovered the money.”
He adds, “Some people tend to delay paying fines. To deal with this menace, we devised a coherent plan.”
In the first phase of the plan, 12 special teams were formed to oversee recovery. “We prepared lists of the challans, before the teams could start working. It was a hectic task,” the CTO admits.
Initially, the drive targeted chronic/ habitual violators. As per the CTO, a lot of challan money has already been recovered. He mentions how the department impounded a motorcycle that had outstanding fines of Rs 335,300. Another motorbike with 313 unpaid challans was also seized.
“At night time, 44 sector vehicles carrying the staff patrol the city streets and catch the violators, besides facilitating citizens ahead of Eid-ul Azha, and ensuring smooth traffic flow.”
The second part of the plan targets official/ government vehicles. The CTO says notices have been issued to the relevant departments in this regard. Around 3,900 vehicles from 73 government departments have outstanding fines. These departments have been given details of the vehicles and instructed to clear the dues.
In the first phase of the plan, 12 special teams were formed to oversee recovery. “We prepared lists of the challans, before the teams could start working. It was a hectic task,” the CTO admits.
In response to a query, Dr Waheed says that the highest number of challans have been issued for seatbelt violations, followed by signal violations, using mobile phone while driving, and lane violations. Other violations include motorcyclists not wearing helmets, and pillion without helmets.
The PSCA has outlined 12 categories of violations. According to the director of Public Relations, PSCA, Punjab Police, Omer Khayyam, the project has two modules, each designed to address different categories of traffic violations. Single-frame Violation Detection Module uses custom CNN architecture to detect violations that can be identified from a single image frame. It involves detection of violations such as unregistered vehicles, underage drivers, helmet detection, seatbelt usage, mobile phone use while driving, tinted glasses, overloading in public service vehicles, goods vehicles overloading, vehicles without proper lights at night, zebra crossing, lane/ line violations and vehicles emitting smoke.
Temporal Violation Detection Module focuses on violations requiring temporal analysis to understand vehicles’ movement and behaviour. It involves detection of speeding, red signal violations, driving in prohibited areas, obstructing the traffic, reckless driving/ one-wheeling and wrong parking.
“The [12] teams work in shifts throughout the day,” says Husnain Rasheed, a spokesperson for city traffic police. “They submit a complete report of their recoveries by the evening. They don’t just stand at traffic signals; they also move across different parts of the city and check vehicles in real time.”
He also talks of a fresh directive given to traffic police officers in the city, according to which whenever they stop a vehicle, the first thing they must do is to check for any e-challans issued against the vehicle. Officials have online access to data through their smart devices. When they enter the vehicle’s number in the Safe City system, they have instant access to complete record.
There have been complaints from citizens who received challans but were unable to pay the dues via ePay as mandated by the portal. Rasheed says , “In that case, you should call the traffic helpline. Our teams are available to assist and guide you, and resolve any system-related issues.”
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Under the amended Provincial Motor Vehicles Ordinance 1965, the traffic police can auction the seized vehicles. They also have the authority to make arrests. In the last two weeks, more than 5,000 people have been detained for traffic violations. The operation continues. Dr Waheed has named it “First Clean, Then Clear.”
The City Traffic Police has introduced KPIs (key performance indicators) for its officials; they must digitally record their daily performance.
Over the past four months, about 3,000 safety helmets have been distributed among motorists in events led by Dr Waheed to raise public awareness about helmet use.
Such campaigns are expected to continue.
Ahsan Malik is a media veteran interested in politics, consumer rights and entrepreneurship