THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government has decided to issue pollution test certificates only to vehicles without any pending fines in the state effective from December 1. The decision was taken following a road safety review meeting chaired by Transport Minister Antony Raju on Monday. The meeting noted a decrease in the rate of road accident-related fatalities in the five months since the installation of the cameras.
During the period from June 2023 to October 31, 2023, the state recorded 1,262 road accident-related deaths, in contrast to 1,669 deaths during the same period the previous year.
The use of AI cameras for surveillance identified 74,32,371 instances of traffic violations between June and October. Of these, 58,29,926 cases were examined, with 23,06,023 cases uploaded into the Integrated Transport Monitoring System. During this time, the Motor Vehicle Department (MVD) issued 2,103,801 challans amounting to over Rs 139 crore in fines, with around Rs 21.5 crore collected as penalties.
The minister announced plans to engage with motor insurance companies on November 15 to revise insurance policy clauses by the evolving traffic accident scenario in the state.
“We will explore options to reduce the premium amount of vehicle insurance policies, impose additional penalties on repeat offenders, and introduce a provision for the payment of fines for traffic violations before insurance renewal.
The meeting will build upon the discussions held last month in Mumbai,” he said. Furthermore, the minister highlighted the establishment of a mechanism on the e-challan website to lodge complaints regarding violations detected by the cameras. In cases where fines are not paid on time and are referred to the court for trial, the public can submit applications and settle fines at the motor vehicle department offices, Raju said.