No-parking violators under drone watch:Bhopal police issuing e-challans, 75 booked in month-long surveillance

In a new crackdown on illegal parking, Bhopal Traffic Police has begun using drones to issue e-challans against vehicles parked along roadsides and in no-parking zones. The initiative is aimed at areas where traffic police do not have permanent fixed deployment points and motorists often leave vehicles parked along the roadside. Over the past month, traffic police carried out the pilot project at four locations across the city and generated more than 75 e-challans. The drone cameras record videos of illegally parked vehicles and capture their registration numbers, after which e-challans are generated through the RTO portal. More than 75 e-challans issued in a month at four locations On Monday alone, 25 challans were generated through drone surveillance in the MP Nagar area. Locations where drones were used The drone-based enforcement was conducted at VIP Road, near the Raja Bhoj statue, Narmadapuram Road and the New Market Post Office area. Trial runs were also carried out at two other traffic-sensitive locations in the city. VIP Road faces the biggest problem Traffic congestion has become a major issue near the Raja Bhoj statue on VIP Road, where visitors often park four-wheelers along the roadside while stopping to enjoy the Upper Lake and nearby attractions. This narrows the road and frequently leads to traffic jams. Police used drone surveillance to issue multiple challans in the area. Action was also taken in the New Market Post Office zone under MP Nagar. Initiative currently in experimental phase Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sonika Shukla said the experiment has been launched on the lines of the Indore model and the initial results have been encouraging. At present, the traffic department has only one drone and one trained operator. Since the operator is also deployed for law-and-order duties when required, e-challans cannot yet be generated on a daily basis. Why drone-based enforcement is significant How the e-challan is generated The drone records vehicles parked along the roadside and captures their registration numbers on camera. The vehicle number is then uploaded to the RTO portal, following which the e-challan is automatically generated.