Daily Times

LAHORE: An automation application developed by the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) for the Lahore Traffic Police was launched on Friday as a pilot project.

Addressing the launching ceremony, PITB Chairman Dr Umar Saif said the ‘Digital Challan’ will be used by 2,200 authorized challan officers who perform their duties in three shifts in 34 traffic sectors of Lahore. Currently 4,500 manual challans are being accounted every day and with the induction of the application, the system would ensure accountability and transparency, he said.

Dr Saif said that the automation of Punjab police initiated with the complaint management system was now being successfully practiced in 713 police stations across the province. He said the whole human resource record of the Punjab police had also been digitized.

The PITB chairman said that the successful automation projects of Punjab police have grabbed the attention of other provinces as well. He said the PITB has assisted Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan police in this regard while Sindh police has also shown keen interest in it. He said the Sindh IGP would soon be visiting Lahore to sign an agreement for the replica of these applications.

Addressing the ceremony, Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Lahore Captain (r) Amin Wains said that traffic was an important component of the police service. He said information technology based initiatives were vital in ensuring the smooth, safe and comfortable movement of the people. He said the digitization was the only way forward to improve the operational capacity of police force.

He stressed the need to hold seminars to create awareness among the citizens to respect the law of the land. He urged upon the wardens that challan should be the last resort and that they must show maximum tolerance and respect to the commuters instead of arguing or indulging in scuffles.

Earlier, Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) Rai Ijaz Ahmad elucidated the salient features of the digital challan application. He termed the project an important development which will help maintain a database of the nature of the traffic violations besides violation history of a person as well as the vehicle.

He said after monitoring the operation of the pilot project, it would be extended to other cities of the Punjab. In the second phase, e-Challan application would be made operational, which would have feature of e-Payment as well, he said. In the third phase, c-Challan would be introduced in the shape of deduction of points with the help of the cameras installed at different city roads, he added.

Rai Ijaz said that 1,600,000 challans were pending in the courts as the violators didn’t turn up to get their CNICs, driving license or registration books back and instead got duplicate copies of these documents. He said this practice will not be possible with the launch of the digital application.

The CTO said that a control room has been established to monitor live footages from 250 CCTV cameras installed at 40 points in the city to improve the security environment. He said all sectors have been equipped with biometric devices, computers, printers and other allied equipment. The PITB’s ‘RAASTA’ application launched three months back has shown unprecedented acceptance by the citizens as some 1,002,000 people have downloaded this smartphone application so far, he added.

Published in Daily Times, April 14^th 2018.