Ahmedabad: Gujarat’s traffic enforcement is quietly undergoing a digital surge — and the numbers tell a striking story. Every two minutes, 29 online challans are being issued across the state, a pace that reflects not just rising traffic violations but also the rapid expansion of technology-led policing.In Jan alone, 6.89 lakh challans were issued online, averaging 22,239 challans a day. This is significantly higher than the daily average of 20,948 challans in 2025 and nearly double the 10,656 daily challans recorded in 2024. Officials say this sharp jump coincides with the state’s full transition to the national Parivahan portal, which has streamlined and centralised traffic enforcement data.What makes the surge more telling is that these figures exclude challans where fines were collected on the spot by traffic police. In other words, the real scale of enforcement is even larger than what the data suggests.According to officials, the Regional Transport Office (RTO) and traffic police have increasingly shifted to electronic enforcement. CCTV cameras, speed guns and handheld devices now capture violations in real time, reducing dependence on manual checks. RTO officials said transport vehicles accounted for a large share of challans, with overloading emerging as the most common offence, followed by overspeeding.The impact of this shift is especially visible in urban centres. Ahmedabad city alone saw 40.2 lakh on the spot challans issued by the traffic police, with motorists paying a staggering Rs 262.6 crore in fines. Helmetless riding topped the list, generating Rs 134.4 crore, followed by wrong-side driving (Rs 36.3 crore) and illegal parking (Rs 34.7 crore). These city-level challans, mostly collected on the spot, are not included in the state’s online challan data, underscoring how enforcement is happening on parallel tracks.A senior police officer said the number of challans recorded on the Parivahan website rose by nearly 96% in 2025 compared to 2024. While 38.90 lakh challans were issued in 2024, the figure jumped to 76.46 lakh in 2025. Just a year earlier, in 2023, the number stood at 12.16 lakh — highlighting how quickly digital enforcement has scaled up.This expansion is no longer limited to major cities. Highways passing through smaller towns are now under CCTV surveillance, and violations detected there are also being converted into online challans. Municipal corporations such as Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Gandhinagar, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar and Junagadh have dense camera networks, enabling round-the-clock monitoring.Officials acknowledge that rising vehicle numbers and congested roads will inevitably push challan counts higher. If January’s pace was any indication, Gujarat may cross the 1 crore online challan mark this year.Head: Challans Issued Year By Traffic Dept By RTO Total 2025 76.46 9.26 85.72 2024 38.90 4.35 43.25 2023 12.16 3.88 16.04 2022 NA 2.84 2.84 2021 NA 3.19 3.19 All figures in lakh
