No Car Insurance? Toll Gates Will Send Fine Automatically
There are a ton of vehicles, including two-wheelers and private and commercial four-wheelers, that drive on public roads without insurance. Now, in order to quickly hold these people accountable for driving without insurance, the State Transport Authority has come up with a new system. It has been reported that, starting from February 1, 22 toll gates across Odisha will have an E-Detection system that will automatically detect vehicles without insurance, after which e-challans will be issued to those vehicles.
Odisha State Transport Authority’s E-Detection System
According to reports, the E-Detection systems installed on toll gates will immediately check if the vehicle passing by has valid insurance or not. If the vehicle does not have valid insurance, an e-challan of Rs 2,000 for first-time offenders will be issued.
Additionally, there could be imprisonment of up to three months as well. In some cases, the offender may be given both. If the vehicle is caught with invalid insurance more than once, Rs 4,000 will be charged as a fine.
Imprisonment of up to three months, or both fine and imprisonment, can also take place. For those who may not be aware, Section 146 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, mandates that every motor vehicle driven on public roads must have valid insurance.
Why Is This E-Detection System Being Implemented?
A lot of people might be wondering why the State Transport Authority of Odisha is implementing this system. Well, the answer is that many private and commercial vehicles are driven on roads without valid insurance. This leads to the denial of compensation to the victims of road accidents. So, with this new system, the Odisha government will ensure that those who do not have valid insurance get everything in place before any incident takes place.
Not the First Time We Have Seen an E-Detection System
This is not the first time we have heard about the automatic E-Detection system. Just a few months ago, the government of Bihar also rolled out an E-Detection system at 32 of the state’s toll plazas. This system was designed to detect vehicles without PUC (pollution under control) certificates.
It was announced that vehicles caught without a PUC will be immediately fined Rs 10,000. The system captures the vehicle data, cross-references it with the National Informatics Centre (NIC) vehicle portal, and then checks if the vehicle is compliant or not. If the PUC is invalid, an e-challan is immediately sent to the vehicle owner.
The same system in Bihar also checked vehicles for motor insurance. First-time offenders receive a fine of Rs 2,000, and repeat offenders receive a fine of Rs 4,000 or imprisonment of up to three months. This system also checks the Fitness Certificate of the vehicle. If found without a valid FC, the fine for first-time offenders is Rs 2,000–Rs 5,000, and for repeat offenders, it is Rs 5,000–Rs 10,000.
It was reported that when these systems were deployed for trials, over 5,000 e-challans were issued in just two days. The Bihar government at the time also highlighted that in the future, this system will be expanded to smart cities like Patna, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur, and others.