Mumbai: An application launched by Mumbai traffic police meant to make your life easier by allowing you to pay an e-challan has ended up confusing Mumbaikars. Those who tried to use the mobile app have hit a brick wall at the very first step with the login id unable to be created.
Commuters like Jatin Sharma, a freelance writer who got an e-challan a few months ago while travelling from Andheri to Vashi in his car said that he had paid the fine but received a text message asking him to pay it via the app. “When I got the message, I thought that either they needed some other kind of confirmation from my end about paying the challan or I had another challan and had to access the app to see it. When I logged in, the app first said that this phone number already exists and later when I tried to login anyway, it did not give me the one-time password it was supposed to give,” said Sharma
Dhara Kanani (25), who rides a scooter to get around the suburbs of Andheri had a similar experience. “On Wednesday, I broke the signal near Khar when I paid a visit to a friend. My scooty was purchased about a year ago and is my first big purchase. So I logged into the app and thought it was convenient that I would be able to pay the fine via the MTP app. However, it kept asking for my login using an OTP which wasn’t sent to my phone when I asked for it.”
Fed up, Ms Kanani said she would pay the fine online via the traffic police’s website instead. Several people who tried the app had a similar experience, so much so they started tagging Mumbai traffic police on its Twitter handle with screenshots of the messages they were getting. One @jonsonbill even asked, “Anyone else being spammed by Mumbai traffic police?”
Meanwhile, the website has been working for commuters and many have been paying their bills through it. The MTP app was launched at the hands of Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan on January 10. Joint commissioner traffic Milind Bharambe was not available for comment.
