4 lakh challans for traffic violations in Srinagar this year

Srinagar, Dec 30: With traffic police tightening noose around the traffic violations, commuters in the summer capital faced over four lakh challans this year.

Officials said that like the previous two years they had relied mostly on issuing e-challans for almost all traffic violations. The data accessed by Greater Kashmir reveals that by December 2024, traffic police issued a whopping 411023 challans throughout the year, out of which 400068 were e-challans.

The data has also revealed that commuters in Srinagar continue to do visible violations like wearing helmets. Among the challans, the top traffic offenses continue to be riding without wearing helmets and wrong parking, with 110335 and 108604 challans, respectively.

In addition to this, commuters were also massively penalised for triple riding, with 11140 challans issued, and driving without seat belts, with 26312 challans issued respectively. At least 41677 commuters in Srinagar were penalised for jumping red light. The officials from Traffic police said that they also cracked the whip on passenger vehicles to ensure passengers don’t face any inconvenience. The official data reveals that 11552 passenger vehicles were challaned for overloading.

While cracking a whip of visible offense, the Traffic police penalised 5462 persons for using mobile phones while driving in Srinagar. In addition to this, vehicles involved in obstructive parking were issued 28879 challans. The traffic police also issued 1161 challans for those without High-Security Registration Plates, while 9564 vehicles were seized under various offenses.

The officials said that to ensure basic civic sense and in the interest of safety, the traffic police issued 37 challans for drinking and driving in Srinagar while 523 commuters were penalised for misbehavior and use of abusive language on roads.

SSP Traffic Muzaffar Ahamd Shah said that they increased the focus on visible offenses this year, and the numbers show. He said the aim was to ensure that no offense gets overlooked so that roads are safer for commuters and pedestrians.

“Our main focus was on cutting down on conflict on roads, be it accidents and other issues. By the end of this year, we have been able to bring changes on the ground, be it in the context of wearing helmets for pillion rides or wearing seatbelts and other things which are directly connected to safety,” Shah said.

He said that increasing awareness about road safety and traffic rules was also the focal point this year.

“We held at least 200 awareness programs this year in collaboration with NGOs to ensure better awareness. Massive drives were conducted this year, and we crossed the 500 mark in conducting special drives against traffic violations,” the SSP added.