Visakhapatnam: Escape routes for traffic offenders in Vizag will soon get shut as the traffic police have planned a smart move to crack the whip on violators with the help of smart chip readers and advanced personal digital assistant (PDA) machines.
Commissioner of Police Amit Garg said once Vizag police get equipped with the PDAs, as part of smart policing system, licence details of traffic offenders will be updated on a real-time basis in the database which will enable police to catch repeat offenders and suspend their licences.
The city traffic police will accept debit/credit card payment, if one has no cash on spot for traffic violations. Motorists can swipe their cards on the PDAs available with the traffic police and pay the fine.
It was found that thousands of e-challans issued by the city traffic police were not paid by the erring motorists in the last few years in the city. Police officials say motorists in Vizag are increasingly becoming indisciplined. According to the city traffic police wing data, the number of traffic offenders jumped from 3.82 lakh in 2014 to 4.75 lakh in 2015 and over 18,000 motorists were caught for drunken driving in 2015.
However, cops have no data regarding the repeated offenders. In the existing system of e-challans, police cannot get the offenders’ driving licences details. Further, the focus is on the vehicle but not its driver in the system.
City police chief Amit Garg said they have sent a proposal to procure PDAs and the technical aspects like configuration, software and connectivity applications are being sorted out by a team at the police computer services.
The PDAs will be integrated with the database of the central police server and will be issued to traffic inspectors and sub-inspectors. With the help of PDAs, the cops can swipe the driving licence which is equipped with a smart chip in the device to know if the driver was earlier penalised.
The smart chip readers will be integrated with the Central Command Control Centre and CCTV network in Vizag. The video footage of the violation can be shown to the offender and the fine can be collected on the spot, he added.
The police chief asked people to be cautious and careful while driving on the roads.
