Ministry of Road Transport & Highways and NIC jointly organised the “1st Zonal Transport Workshop – Implementation of eChallan and mParivahan” at Hotel Mountview, Chandigarh on 10th and 11th April 2017. The event was hosted by  NIC Chandigarh UT  Unit, in coordination with NIC Haryana, NIC Punjab and NICSI Chandigarh.  The  delegates were from Transport Department, Traffic police and NIC  from 12 States/UTs namely J&K, HP, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, UP, Uttarakhand, Delhi, MP, Chhatisgarh, Gujarat and Rajasthan.  

 

Mr S S Dhillon, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary to Govt. of Haryana, Transport Department was the chief guest on the occasion. Also present on the dais were Mr Sarvjit Singh, IAS, Principal Secretary  Transport, Government of Punjab, Mr K K Jindal, IAS, Secretary Transport, UT Chandigarh, Mr Ajit Balaji Joshi, IAS, Deputy Commissioner, UT Chandigarh, Mr S S Gahlout, DDG NIC, Mr  Navneet Kukreja, DDG & SIO Punjab and Mr G S Bansal, DDG & SIO Haryana. 

The workshop started with the traditional welcoming of the esteem dignitaries with bouquet of flowers. It was followed by lighting of the ceremonial lamp. In his welcome address, Mr G S Bansal, DDG & SIO Haryana welcomed all the dignitaries and the delegates to the 2 days Zonal Workshop. Mr S S Gahlout, DDG NIC in his keynote address explained the concept behind conducting the Zonal Workshops, 1st in the series of 3 was being held in Chandigarh. Elaborating the features of the apps eChallan and mParivahan, he emphasised the need of having eChallan app  on the devices of officials engaged in duty of law enforcement.  He also informed that to empower the citizens, the mobile app mParivahan could play a major role and requested all senior officers present in the workshop to help in popularising it in their respective states.  

Mr Priyank Bharti, IAS, Director (MVL), MoRTH, GoI, who was scheduled to be present in the workshop but had to cancel at the very last minute  in view of an unavoidable exigency, as Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill was to be taken in Lok Sabha for passing. He however, sent his wishes through a message, which was read by Mr Joydeep Shome, STD, NIC. Excerpts from his message are reproduced below –   

“…we had thought about this conference long back for detailed deliberation and hands-on. It's importance will greatly increase with the passing of the Amendment bill as National register and other IT enabled processes included in Law.   The two new applications echallan and mparivahan are an evolving applications and have been developed with consideration of states requirements and the procedures of law involved.  We assure that we will keep on incorporating the desirable changes in future too.     The adoption and comprehensive usage of echallan would help in handling the challan and penalty procedures in a much improved manner and reducing time for transactions and corruption.   It will also offer citizens an objective disposal of challan with proofs and inventory of transactions.  Also with repository trail  being maintained of the offences it will in the long run help in compliance of traffic rules and reduced violations and is another move towards road safety initiatives.   Our wishes for the officers for  good discussion and comfortable stay….”

Mr Ajit Balaji Joshi, IAS, DC Chandigarh, in his address, mentioned regarding some innovative practices adopted in various projects. He appreciated the initiatives undertaken jointly by MoRTH & NIC and further suggested to have the technologies like RFID integrated in the system so as  to simplify the process and make it convenient for the citizens and law enforcement agencies.

Mr K K Jindal, IAS, Secretary Transport , Chandigarh Administration thanked MoRTH and NIC for choosing Chandigarh as the venue for the 1st Zonal Transport Workshop and also for bringing together all the stakeholders ie transport authorities, traffic police and the technology providers. He highlighted some of the initiatives undertaken by Chandigarh Administration in this direction and appreciated the role of NIC in it.  

Mr Sarvjit Singh, IAS, Principal Secretary Transport, Punjab Government  in his address shared his views on the expectations of the citizens and how technology could play a pivotal role in overcoming the challenges and meeting the expectations. On his behalf he assured the MoRTH that the government was  committed to the mandate of Govt. of India under Digital India which emphasises leveraging technology for the benefit of the citizens so as  to have a a digitally transformed knowledge based society.  

Mr S S Dhillon, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary to Govt. of Haryana, Transport Department in his address welcomed the delegates from different States/UTs and wished them a comfortable stay and fruitful sessions.  He also appreciated the eChallan and mParivahan initiatives and suggested that the MoRTH and NIC should continue to strive towards improving the quality of products and services.  He also mentioned that it was a unique occasion wherein both citizen and employee centric services were being showcased and congratulated the  MoRTH and NIC for such an innovation.   The team from Transport Department and NIC  Uttar Pradesh was  felicitated for the commendable support and cooperation extended by them in implementation of eChallan enforcement solution across all RTOs of UP. Mr Ganga Phal, Additional Transport Commissioner, Mr Surya Pratap Dev and Ms Anita Verma, Public Tax Officers  from the Transport Department and Dr L R Yadav, STD and Mr Sudhanshu Saxena, SA from NIC were honoured and given a token of appreciation by the Chief Guest.  

Proposing the vote of thanks, Mr Vivek Verma, SIO Chandigarh UT thanked all the dignitaries who could spare time from their immense busy schedule to be part of the workshop and the words of encouragement and the innovative ideas put forth by them for making the initiatives more meaningful.  He thanked MoRTH and NIC Headquarters for choosing Chandigarh as the venue for the Workshop and the delegates who had come from far off places to be a part of the event and making it a success. He expressed his gratitude to the Transport Informatics Division, NIC Headquarters under Sh S S Gahlout, DDG NIC for the moral support, directions & guidance provided at every stage. He also expressed his special thanks to colleagues from NIC Haryana & Punjab & NICSI, for their support and help. Last but not the least he thanked his NIC UT Chandigarh  team for working tirelessly for the success of this workshop.  

After the inaugural session, Mr Joydeep Shome, STD, NIC gave an introduction to eChallan and mParivahan mobile apps in two separate sessions. The features and advantages of the apps were explained through a presentation and the queries raised were addressed to the satisfaction of delegates.  Thereafter, a complete demonstration of the eChallan and mParivahan Mobile apps was given by Mr Vikrant  and he also explained the implementation guidelines. It was followed by an interactive session in which implementation of eChallan and mParivahan was discussed, suggestions were noted  and  the doubts cleared.   

The second day of the workshop ie 11th April 2017 was devoted to the status and issues of VAHAN 4.0 and SARATHI 4.0. Mr Joydeep Shome, STD NIC gave the status of VAHAN 4.0 and SARATHI 4.0 implementation and made a presentation on the features and the benefits of the two applications. Queries related to the two applications were handled by the respective teams of SARATHI and VAHAN. The two sessions generated keen interest amongst the delegates as they could get instant response and solutions to their queries. It was also helpful as the coordinators from other states could share their experiences and guide the delegates from the states who were new entrant in its implementation. The long sessions of interaction amongst the delegates also benefitted the Sarathi and Vahan teams in understanding the problems being faced at the field level. Many suggestions were given to make the applications more helpful for all the stakeholders. Delegates from different states also made requests for state level workshops so as to train a larger audience to which it was suggested that the same could be held over VC.

For the convenience of delegates from different states, invites were also sent to the various device manufacturers giving them an opportunity to showcase their products. It evoked a very good response as five vendors having considerable experience and with reliable and innovative products setup their stalls and demonstrated the products to the keen delegates. Many states also engaged them for conducting a pilot for implementing eChallan and mParivahan, to which they were quite positive and responsive.  

The two day workshop concluded successfully  on 11th April 2017 in which Mr Joydeep Shome, STD thanked the delegates for their participation and the organisers for their efforts in conducting the complete event.