As per a new notification of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the state enforcement agencies will be required to send over the traffic violation notice to the offender within 15 days of the committal of the offence.

The electronic records of the same will have to be maintained until the challan is disposed. This notification has been issued under the under the amended Motor Vehicle Act 1989 for Electronic Monitoring and Enforcement of Road Safety.

The new rules also stipulate that the electronic devices for enforcement comprise of television camera, speed gun, speed camera, dashboard camera, body wearable camera, weigh-in machine, automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) amongst others.

However, these devices will have to be positioned in a manner that it does not disturb the line of sight or obstruct the traffic in any way.

Video footage from these devices can be used to issue a challan for over-speeding, parking or stopping the vehicle at an unauthorised location, not wearing protective headgear/helmet.

But, these footages would need to have the electronic stamp for date, time and location to serve their aforementioned purpose and it will also be applicable to detect and penalise other such violations.

“State governments shall ensure that such devices are placed at high-risk / high-density corridors on National Highways, State Highways, and at critical junctions, at least in major cities with more than 1 million population, including 132 cities mentioned in the notification,” the central ministry’s statement was quoted by the Economic Times.

The government is targeting to increase the number of cities having such electronic monitoring. At the moment, it is present in a scattered manner in some locations in different states across the country.

Motor Vehicle Act 1989

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