Road Ministry to launch two apps for safety, citizen services

E-challan is an enforcement app which will be utilised by traffic police and transport authorities

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is planning to soon launch two mobile apps — m-Parivahan and e-challan — which would not only give a push to road safety but also facilitate citizen interactions.

M-Parivahan is a citizen-centric app which would offer the facility of searching and establishing the genuineness of a vehicle and driver.

E-challan is an enforcement app which will be utilised by traffic police as well as transport authorities.

"The ministry is planning to launch two apps related to road safety and customer facilitation. One of them would be e-challan which would be used by the enforcement authorities and another would be m-Parivahan which would provide host of services to citizens," a Road Ministry official said.

It would also facilitate good samaritans in terms of reporting accidents or traffic violations, the official said.

"We expect to give big push to the road safety cause with these two apps and also facilitate customers while interacting with the transport department," the official added.

Both the apps are expected to be launched during the ‘Road Safety Week’ which begins on Monday.

"m-Parivahan will help in the safety of the passengers if they are hiring a driver. It will also help transporters. Secondly, it will help the people who are buying a second-hand car," the official said.

Additionally, m-Parivahan will facilitate Good Samaritans with the help of technology.

"M-Parivahan will help in reporting an accident and this accident reported will be directly transmitted to concerned traffic authorities in the state and the concerned Regional Transport Offices (RTOs).

"Under Motor Vehicles Act, the police as well as the transport authorities can take action against the traffic violators. If they use this app, the moment they put in a driving licence number, they will get entire information about the licence holder or the vehicle owner from the back-end and then they will have the option to tick the proper violation which has been committed and accordingly challans would be generated.

"e-challan mechanism facilitates payments as also cashless model... I am sure that the states over a period of time would come and join this platform. Already some states have started pilot run and it has been quite good," he said.

The Road Safety Week will be observed from January 9-15. On January 10, Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari will attend a conclave which is being organised to involve corporates and enlist their support for the cause of promoting road safety.

"We expect the corporates to make commitment for road safety. This is the first time we are holding such an event. We are trying to involve the corporates also in road safety," the official said.