Bhopal traffic police are acting against motorists, particularly two-wheeler riders, who allegedly bend, cover or otherwise alter high-security registration plates (HSRPs) to prevent Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) cameras from reading vehicle numbers and issuing e-challans.
According to traffic officials, some riders bend the lower-right corner of a rear number plate by about 45 degrees, hiding one or two digits while making the damage appear accidental. Others reportedly cover the last one or two digits with black adhesive tape, barcode stickers or carton-packing tape carrying printed text.
Officials also said some motorists leave mud on an otherwise clean vehicle’s registration plate, bend the entire plate halfway or use black markers to fill gaps between digits. These methods can make registration numbers difficult for automated camera systems to distinguish, according to the report.
A traffic police officer said the tactics were being used particularly by two-wheeler riders with HSRPs. Many of the riders allegedly involved in such violations are also found without helmets or jumping red lights, officials said. The plate alterations are intended to prevent ITMS-generated challans from being linked to the vehicle registration number.
Concealing or tampering with a registration plate could invite strict action and may also amount to fraud, another traffic police officer said. Additional DCP (Traffic) Basant Kaul said police were identifying vehicles with tampered plates during roadside checks and conducting daily checking drives at multiple locations across the city.
The enforcement challenge comes as Bhopal’s traffic authorities continue to issue large numbers of penalties through both physical policing and camera-based monitoring. Traffic and city police issued 1,54,700 challans between January and August this year, involving penalties of around Rs 6.3 crore. About Rs 4 crore had been collected against 1,12,744 challans, while 41,956 challans involving approximately Rs 2.3 crore remained pending, according to traffic police data.
ITMS enforcement generated more than 2.12 lakh e-challans between January and July, with around Rs 8.16 crore collected in fines. Officials said more than 85% of police-issued challans were related to two-wheeler riders not wearing helmets.
The figures show the scale of Bhopal’s shift towards technology-assisted traffic enforcement, while the plate-tampering cases highlight the limits of automated systems when vehicle identification data is deliberately obscured. Police officials warned that avoiding a camera-generated challan would not protect riders from action during physical checks. Roadside drives and penalties against vehicles with concealed or damaged plates are continuing across the city.
