Broke a traffic rule, pay 5 times more fine from August

In a bid to deter motorists from flouting traffic rules whenever they find it convenient, the state traffic department has decided to increase the penalties five-fold.

The traffic commissioner of Mumbai has sent a written proposal to the state transport minister Diwakar Raote to revise the penalties. The transport minister, agreeing with the proposal, has promised to execute the new fines by July end.

This move came after the traffic department studied similar approaches undertaken by other countries in the sub-continent. For instance, Nepal’s capital Kathmandu witnessed a drop of 50 percent in traffic offenders in a week after they doubled the fines.

Citing that over one lakh offenders were caught flouting traffic rules in Mumbai within a span of six months this year, the transport minister believes that the city is in dire need of a strict measure to curb these offences.

At present the fines for breaking traffic rules like over-speeding, lane cutting, halting in the middle of the road, talking on the phone while driving, etc varies from Rs 50 to Rs 200. However, after the implementation of the proposed scheme, these fines will be increased five times.

While speaking to Mumbai Mirror, transport minister Diwakar Raote said, “In the past six months, more than 1 lakh cases of signal jumping, rash driving and so on have been registered, and around 6,000-7,000 licences suspended for three months in response. But until we make the laws more stringent, people will not fall in line with the regulations.”