Ahmedabad: Vehicle owners with unpaid traffic e-challans will lose access to several RTO services until they clear their dues, as authorities tighten enforcement through the integrated digital system. Even services related to a driving licence number linked to a mobile number and Aadhaar will be checked for the owner’s pending challans on other vehicles registered in his name.The integrated system that offers services including ownership transfer, change of address in the registration certificate (RC), hypothecation termination, issuance of duplicate RCs automatically checks for pending e-challans. An officer approving the applications too checks for dues. Applications are sent back with instructions to first clear outstanding dues before they can be processed.According to officials, nearly 50% of all vehicle-related applications received across Gujarat are currently held up because of unpaid fines. However, Ahmedabad has reported a significantly lower pendency rate of around 35%. Officials attribute this to agents handling applications, who typically verify and ensure that pending challans are paid before submitting the paperwork. Usually, such applications, when moved with Aadhaar authentication, are faceless where the applicant is not required to visit the respective RTO.Since 2024, Gujarat has issued approximately 1.80 crore traffic challans. From Jan 1 to July 31, 2026 alone, a total of 50.6 lakh e-challans were issued.Despite the growing use of automated enforcement, officials admit that payment rates remain poor. They cited national figures to illustrate the trend, noting that across the country, 88.2 lakh challans were issued in May this year, but 75.21 lakh, or over 85%, remained unpaid.Officials said many vehicle owners become aware of outstanding challans only when they initiate an application for an RTO service. “Once a person knows that there are pending challans, they generally pay them so that their application can move forward,” an official said.The officials said that the state is continuing to strengthen integration between enforcement and transport databases. Once the process is fully implemented, the system will automatically block the processing of any application linked to a vehicle with unpaid traffic challans, making clearance of outstanding dues a prerequisite for all vehicle-related transactions.
