In tune with ‘Digital India’ programme, the Telangana State Transport Department has rolled out a first-of-its-kind initiative– RTA M Wallet App that helps a motorist in much more ways than enabling to show all his transport and traffic related documents in a single app. Sandeep Kumar Sultania, Commissioner, Telangana Transport Department tells more in an interaction with Sudheer Goutham of Elets News Network (ENN).
What is ‘Telangana RTA M Wallet App’ is all about and how has been the response so far since the initiative was launched?
RTA M Wallet App is a first of its kind in India that will help motorists to avoid physically carrying documents like driving license, registration certificate (RC) and other documents related to transport and traffic department. Telangana Information Technology Minister KT Rama Rao and Transport Minister P. Mahendar Reddy launched it on March 31, 2016. The response has been encouraging with over 15 lakh downloads in a span of six months.
The idea of M Wallet triggered from several instances where many of the motorists fail to carry the driving licenses, vehicle registration certificates and other related documents and end up being fined by the police personnel. Our IT minister felt why these documents cannot be in electronic form. That is how it started and finally we came up with the idea of M Wallet App. The M-Wallet app can be downloaded free and one can register themselves using the name and mobile phone which will connect them to the transport department data. The response to the initiative has been quite encouraging as we see 15,000 downloads each day. Out of every 100 downloads over 40 of them are happening in the rural areas which is impressive.
What are the further plans for up gradation or addition of new features to the M Wallet App?
Earlier, we included DLs and RCs in M Wallet. Then suggestions came pouring in that we include insurance and PUC certification also in it, which were good inputs. Following which we also included the insurance aspect in it. We have done our data base service with the insurance bureau so our insurance is coming with the regional certificate. We are also in the process of including Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificate feature in it. We also wanted to link the e-Challen aspect of the police department in the app with an idea that our M Wallet App can be one single interface for all the transport and traffic related issues.
What are your plans to take it forward and increase its reach to the motorists?
Our challenge is how we take it to all the people across the state at the earliest. Approximately, there are over one crore driving license holders, and we could reach about 15 lakh of them. Given the connectivity gaps in the rural areas, we see some challenges. However, we are hopeful that we will cover all the users in next two years. Another focus in this area is to add more number of facilities in the M Wallet App.
How are you collaborating with the police department on the e-Challan aspect?
e-Challan is generated automatically when a motorist violates a traffic rule and it is linked to RC and DL of the violator. Now, we are in the process of linking e-Challan with M Wallet. With this, as soon as the motorist is challaned by the traffic department, a notification similar to that in Facebook, WhatsApp pops up through the M Wallet App. Thus, M Wallet will also become a payment gateway for payments W related to the traffic.
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