AHMEDABAD: Gujarat’s traffic enforcement has undergone a dramatic digital expansion, with official data presented in the Rajya Sabha showing that the state issued 1,99,39,464 e-challans from 2021 through July 30, 2026.
The rise, however, has not been linear. Gujarat recorded zero e-challans in 2021, followed by 2.84 lakh in 2022, 16.05 lakh in 2023, 43.25 lakh in 2024 and a staggering 85.74 lakh in 2025. By July 30, 2026, another 51.52 lakh challans had already been issued.
The numbers expose the scale of the enforcement expansion: from just 2.84 lakh challans in 2022 to 85.74 lakh in 2025, Gujarat recorded an almost 30-fold increase in three years.
More significantly, 2025 alone accounted for nearly 43% of all Gujarat’s e-challans issued since the system began reporting state-level data in 2021.
2025 was the enforcement breakout year
The biggest inflection point came between 2024 and 2025. Gujarat’s annual e-challan count jumped from 43.25 lakh in 2024 to 85.74 lakh in 2025, an increase of about 98.3% in a single year. That surge placed Gujarat among the country’s largest e-challan generators.
In 2025, Uttar Pradesh reported 1.93 crore challans, Kerala 1.01 crore, Delhi 96.13 lakh, Tamil Nadu 89.41 lakh and Gujarat 85.74 lakh. Gujarat therefore stood fifth nationally among the states and UTs listed in the annexure for 2025.
The trend has continued into 2026. Gujarat issued 51.52 lakh challans in the first seven months, equivalent to around 60% of its entire 2025 tally. At that pace, the state is already running at a level that would keep annual enforcement significantly above its pre-2025 trajectory. The 2026 figure, however, is only up to July 30 and should not be directly compared with full-year figures without that qualification.
But enforcement is racing ahead of recovery
The more troubling side of the Gujarat data lies not in the number of challans issued, but in the money that remains unpaid. The official annexure records unpaid e-challan amounts of Rs 29.05 crore in 2021, Rs 40.42 crore in 2022, Rs 123.22 crore in 2023, Rs 276.28 crore in 2024, Rs 645.35 crore in 2025 and Rs 493.32 crore up to July 30, 2026. Together, these figures amount to Rs 1,607.64 crore across the reported period.
The escalation is stark.
From Rs 123.22 crore in 2023, unpaid challan value more than doubled to Rs 276.28 crore in 2024, before jumping again to Rs 645.35 crore in 2025. That means the unpaid amount increased by roughly 134% in 2025 alone.
So while Gujarat nearly doubled challan issuance in 2025, the value of unpaid penalties increased even faster.
Rs 645 crore unpaid in 2025 alone
The 2025 figure deserves particular scrutiny. Gujarat generated 85.74 lakh e-challans that year, while the unpaid challan amount reported for the same year stood at Rs 645.35 crore.
This places Gujarat among the states carrying the largest unpaid e-challan burdens in the country. In 2025, Uttar Pradesh reported Rs 2,933.69 crore in unpaid e-challan amounts, Haryana Rs 1,398.65 crore, Rajasthan Rs 724 crore, Gujarat Rs 645.35 crore and Odisha Rs 627.72 crore. Gujarat consequently ranked fourth among the listed states and UTs on this measure.
The Gujarat figure is therefore not merely a local enforcement statistic. It places the state firmly inside the national problem of penalty generation outpacing penalty recovery.
2026 shows some moderation, but the backlog remains huge
The unpaid amount reported for Gujarat during 2026 up to July 30 is Rs 493.32 crore. That is around 23.6% lower than the Rs 645.35 crore reported for 2025, but the comparison is between a seven-month 2026 period and a complete 2025 year.
At the same time, Gujarat has already generated 51.52 lakh challans in seven months of 2026, compared with 85.74 lakh during the whole of 2025. The data therefore does not yet establish a sustained reduction in non-payment.
Instead, it shows that both enforcement and unpaid penalties remain at exceptionally high levels.
Gujarat’s digital enforcement story has a clear contradiction
The data reveals a sharp structural contrast. On one side, Gujarat has moved rapidly towards technology-driven traffic enforcement. E-challans increased from 2.84 lakh in 2022 to 85.74 lakh in 2025, indicating a massive expansion in electronic detection and enforcement.
On the other, unpaid challan amounts climbed from Rs 40.42 crore in 2022 to Rs 645.35 crore in 2025, a more than 15-fold increase.
The critical policy question, therefore, is no longer simply how many traffic violators are being detected, but how effectively those penalties are ultimately recovered.
New rules put greater pressure on repeat offenders
The Centre has strengthened the enforcement framework through the Central Motor Vehicles (Third Amendment) Rules, 2026, notified on January 20, 2026. The rules prescribe timelines for service, contesting, adjudication and payment of challans and provide consequences for non-payment, including restrictions on specified vehicle and driving licence-related transactions until pending challans are disposed of.
The e-challan system also maintains historical records against vehicles and driving licences, allowing repeat offenders to be tracked. Most significantly, the amended Rule 21 provides that five or more offences or contraventions within one year, beginning January 1, 2026, can become grounds for driving licence disqualification.
But implementation remains primarily a state responsibility. The Centre has clarified that enforcement of the e-challan system and recovery of unpaid penalties rests with the respective state governments and UT administrations.
Gujarat’s real test: from detection to collection
The Gujarat numbers ultimately tell a two-part story. First, the state has built a formidable digital traffic enforcement machine. The jump from 2.84 lakh challans in 2022 to 85.74 lakh in 2025 demonstrates the scale of that transformation.
Second, the enforcement pipeline has created an equally serious recovery challenge. More than Rs 1,600 crore in unpaid e-challan amounts has accumulated across the reported annual figures, with the unpaid value reaching its highest level in 2025 at Rs 645.35 crore.
For Gujarat, therefore, the next phase of traffic enforcement cannot be measured merely by the number of cameras, violations detected or challans generated.
The sharper metric is recovery.
Until the state converts its rapidly expanding digital enforcement into actual penalty collection and compliance, Gujarat’s e-challan success story will remain incomplete: more detection, more challans, but a growing financial trail of unpaid penalties.
Data source: Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2019, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, answered August 5, 2026, based on National Informatics Centre data; 2026 figures are up to July 30, 2026.