E-Challan — An effective innovation in traffic management

Traffic management has become a crisis for all in the urban centers as well as for those commuters who travel inter-city on highways in Pakistan. Consequent upon over population, rapid urbanisation, mushrooming of businesses and residential housing societies have resulted in congestions at multiple points in the cities and on highways.

According to some estimates, Lahore is the 13^th-largest city of Asia and 25^th-largest city of the world. It houses 11.1 million people and hosts commuters of approximately 5 million every day from adjoining areas. During the peak traffic rush hours, ie, offices and educational institutions timings. Similarly, there are peak rush hours in the evening and also at the weekends when commuters from adjoining areas either move towards Lahore or any other big city like Karachi or Peshawar. According to a widely reported study of the Punjab Safe Cities with Dr Syed Muhammad Hasan of the Lahore University of Management Sciences, traffic congestions were causing exorbitant economic burden on users of the roads. Dr Syed Muhammad Hassan used data provided by the Authority and estimated that drivers of Lahore waste 100 billion rupees by spending their productive time on the roads due to congestions as well as they consume more fuel due to slow moving traffic on the roads which hinders their movement as per designed capacity of the roads. These results were made public in 2017 and it was a seminal study to gauge the impact of traffic congestions on drivers only. It is important to mention that researchers have not considered the cost of pollution, stress and medical conditions which have a direct correlation with traffic congestions as one can easily understand.

However, there are other problems in traffic management and public safety due unsafe driving, particularly by motorcyclists which is one such big issue. Only in Punjab the number of two-wheelers has increased 300% from 2010 to 2018 and numbers seem to be rising. This increase in numbers is a major reason of slow moving traffic on main roads and feeder routes in the cities of Punjab but, on the other hand, it is also the most popular and economical alternative in the absence of a well-functioning public transport system. Many of these motorcycles have been altered from their original design and converted into Motorcycle-Rickshaws popular with the name of Qing Qi. These are unauthorised passenger and goods service vehicles, and according to careful estimates, their number is close to 50,000 in Lahore only. Therefore, approximately 50,000 motorbikes turned into three-wheel vehicles are neither approved nor lawful vehicles as per public transport regime of the government of Punjab nor do they follow suitable road safety regulations. There is no sign of any practical solution suggested by the relevant authorities to address this issue to date.

However, some solutions have been forwarded with the help of the honorable High Court of Lahore and a lead role is played by the Honourable Judge Ali Akbar Qureshi to reduce the agony faced by the people living and visiting Lahore. The honourable judge took up the matter of public safety and directed the Inspector General of Police Punjab to implement mandatory wearing of helmets by the users of motorcycles from September 23, 2018, ie, just after Muharram ul Haram. The chief of the City Traffic Police Lahore took up the challenge as directed by the Inspector General of Punjab police and implemented this decision in letter and in spirit. So much so that the increased demand for helmet caused supply shortage and prices of helmets increased. Again, the honorable court intervened and ordered to take care of rights of motorcyclists and convinced the market forces to play a positive role in reducing the prices as well as ensuring their availability. However, these were not the only measures to improve the traffic management system in Lahore.

The Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) was asked to assist the court to improve the traffic management further, hence the PSCA presented the whole concept of E-Challan System through intelligent traffic management system installed since 2017. On approval and order of the Court, E-Challan System is implemented and almost 100,000 E-Challans have been sent to people at their doorsteps and drivers have not been stopped on the roads after violation of signals. No police officer or a traffic warden has intercepted the violators on the road as their fines will be deposited in banks by active support and request by the police and the Safe Cities Authority. In addition, after obtaining data from the Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency, the PSCA started displaying speed limits on electronic boards and people have started following the speed limit because they are aware that another E-Challan can be issued to them. Now people can even view their E-Challan through the website of the Authority and know history of the red light violations.

Like other big urban centres, quite often, it was a nightmare to travel during rush hours but now a positive change is visible on the same roads of Lahore where congestion, corruption and confusion was order of the day. There has also been an increased demand by the people of Lahore to open the portals for correction of records of their vehicles in the Excise and Taxation Department. People are also desirous of making online payments and, on the other hand, requests are coming to the PSCA for correction of E-Challans which might have some complaints. Grievance redressal by the PSCA is in process and public response is very positive. The Lahore High Court has recently ordered to ensure the backview mirrors for motorcyclists as well as directions are issued to pedestrians to use only Zebra crossings for crossing the road. All these directions are being circulated through media for which Pemra is playing its role positively. Where the PSCA and the Punjab police are active on social media, major electronic media channels are still lagging behind in creating awareness for public at large.

In the near future, it is expected that with the support of the Honourable Court and executive authorities, including the Chief Secretary, Inspector General of Police and Traffic Police, road discipline will further improve. So far there is a 50% reduction in violations of red light signals and similarly approximately 70% reduction in the number of accidents in particular, head injuries among the motorcyclists. There is also reduction in fuel consumption of every vehicle and motorcycle user. It has reduced the chances of corruption, pilferage, subjectivity and favouritism on the basis of position, authority, gender or financial status.

Traffic management needs to be prioritised as a national issue by the newly-elected governments in all provinces. There is a need to lend political ownership to these initiatives on a larger scale in our country. Nascent successes of the PSCA and the Lahore Traffic Police through renewed support of the Lahore High Court provide clear evidence that concerted efforts of the police can bring positive change and can improve public safety.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2018.

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