BENGALURU: Motorists caught violating traffic rules in the city will be able to pay fine by swiping their credit or debit cards by the end of this month.
Speaking to Express, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) R Hithendra said, “We have received 75 of the 650 Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) devices so far. This will be used by traffic policemen at a few major junctions by the end of March as a pilot project.”
He further added that police personnel will undergo training on how to operate the machines. “For the first time, we are launching a cashless facility to pay traffic fines. We are now looking at technical aspects and payment gateway to ensure hassle-free transactions. We will get the remaining devices shortly.”
Officials say BlackBerry devices used by traffic policemen to check pending violations and to impose new fines will be replaced with these new devices.
“The devices are equipped with an in-built printer and are more efficient than the BlackBerry. Once the debit/credit card is swiped in the machine, motorists will get an SMS on his/her mobile phone with details of the violation,” said a traffic police official.
At present, point-of-sale machines are only available at traffic police stations. The new devices are expected to come as a relief for citizens facing a shortage of cash after demonetisation. Arguments between traffic policemen and erring motorists over the fine payment had grown due to cash shortage.
Many traffic policemen in the city welcomed the plan. “Some errant motorists claim that they don’t have lose change to pay fines due to shortage of Rs 100 and Rs 500 notes. Once we get the PDA devices we can tell them to pay using cards if they don’t have enough cash,” said a traffic policeman. The devices are already in use in Hyderabad and Mumbai.