FreeCharge ties up with Mumbai Traffic Police for cashless payment of traffic fines

FreeCharge, one of India’s leading mobile wallet companies, has partnered with Mumbai Traffic Police for the collection of cashless fines via the Freecharge wallet.

“We are pleased to partner with Mumbai Traffic Police in their pursuit of making the process of collecting fines cashless. Digital payments make the process faster and more efficient. Such partnerships are in line with our objective to make FreeCharge an everyday, everywhere option for our users,” Govind Rajan, CEO, FreeCharge said in a statement.

At present, close to 500 e-challan devices have been handed out to various traffic chowkies across the city.

Once an offender is caught violating any traffic rule, an e-challan is generated against the vehicle registration number and sent to person’s mobile phone.

The user can then log on to the Mumbai Traffic Police’s website (www.mumbaipolice.net), enter the challan or vehicle number, and pay the fine online.

Going forward, the user will also have the option of paying via FreeCharge in addition to the other available options. Meanwhile, the company is also in talks with police authorities in other cities to enable traffic challans to be paid via its platform.

In a statement shared earlier, Mumbai traffic police said that it expects an annual increase of 8 lakh challans, from the existing 22 lakhs. Such an effort will also help them in identifying and taking action against repeat offenders.

According to publicly available data, just Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru contribute close to 310 crores in traffic fines every year.

The government, committed to transforming India into a digital economy, has taken a plethora of steps in recent months to increase the adoption of online transactions. Many of which, have helped companies like FreeCharge and its rival Paytm.

In a statement issued last month, Paytm too said that it had crossed a landmark 7 million transactions worth rs 120 crore in a single day.