Speed Limit Violators Pay Over Rs 100 Crore As Penalty In 2022, Over Rs 700 Crore Pending

Speed limit violators across the country paid nearly Rs 110 crore as fine to the enforcement authorities during the last year, while another Rs 729 crore was pending.

Among all states and union territories, a total of Rs 50 crore fine was collected for speed violation in Uttar Pradesh, followed by Delhi and Haryana. In the case of pending fine, at Rs 550 crore, Delhi had the maximum amount due on violators.

Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari submitted these details to Rajya Sabha on Wednesday (26 July) in a written reply to a question asked by Aam Aadmi Party MP, Vikramjit Singh Sahney.

Sahney who had sought the fines and amount collected for breaking speed limits on highways and expressways, in last five years, and details of the pending amount still to be collected from people charged with speeding.

Speeding has been identified as the biggest reason for road fatalities and injuries in the country.

As per government data, around 1.1 lakh out of the total 1.54 lakh lives lost in road crashes in 2021, was due to speeding. This translates to nearly 70 per cent of the fatalities and similarly, this was the main reason for around around 73 per cent (2.8 lakh) of the total persons injured in road crashes.

Globally, speeding has also been recognised as the biggest reason for crashes, road deaths and injuries.

As per the details of fines and challans submitted by the ministry, the total collection from fines for speed limit violations in 2020, was around Rs 75 crore and the fines pending before authorities was Rs 744 crore.

Sources said taking cognisance of the need to have a proper system in place for installation of cameras, with specifications to detect violations, a committee has been set up.

Traffic experts have also raised the concern over missing and improper signages and road marking, which are crucial for the capturing violations on CCTV cameras and preparing e-challans.