BENGALURU: Burgeoning traffic in the city might peeve the environmentalist and the motorist, but it has had a sunny side of sorts. Until November this year, traffic police collected Rs 102 crore in fines from errant motorists, a figure that is already the highest in the history of the department. It is also the first time that fines collected have touched the Rs 100 crore-mark.A massive 92.15 lakh cases were booked until November, a figure that comfortably outstrips the number of registered vehicles — 71.32 lakh — in the city. This translates to an average of 25,248 cases a day. The obvious inference is that some motorists are repeat offenders and suggests that while the traffic police have been vigilant on the one hand, they have been lax on the other since repeat offenders continue to motor on city roads.This year’s collection puts last year’s figures — Rs 66.96 crore in fines from 75.22 lakh errant motorists — in the shade. In 2015, 90.99 lakh cases yielded Rs 70.42 crore in fines. However, while the numbers are a shot in the arm for the police, only a fraction is spent on road safety. The fines collected are deposited in the state treasury and goes to augment the government’s coffers. Officials claim that Bengaluru collects the maximum in traffic-related fines among all metros in the country. But a fair comparison cannot be made. Delhi collected Rs 74.84 crore, but that figure is only up to September. Mumbai (Rs 10.04 crore till May) and Hyderabad (20.86 crore till October) are some of the other ‘top-earners’.One reason for the high collection of fines is also vehicular density. Bengaluru is home to the second highest number of vehicles among all metros after New Delhi, which tops the list with 1.01 crore vehicles. Hyderabad accounts for 48.70 lakh vehicles (as on October 31), Chennai for 47.57 lakh (as on April 2016) and Mumbai for 30.69 lakh (as on March 2017).Shortage of parking spaceExperts said wrong parking at the top of traffic violations is an indication of increase in the number of vehicles and a shortage of parking space in the city. Pawan Mulukutla, senior manager, World Resources Institute (WRI) India, an NGO which works for transport issues said, “The message to errant motorists is that they cannot break the rule and get away with it. Bengaluru traffic police should launch a penalty point-based system for repeated offenders and it should be linked to insurance and the ability to drive a vehicle. Many foreign countries have such a system to rein in offenders.”Mulukutla also believes the fines should be used by traffic police to purchase new signals, barricades, towing and other equipment to ensure smooth flow of traffic.Traffic officials said they frequently upload the list of owners of vehicles with multiple violations and are also visiting households of the violators to recover pending fines. Records show that nearly 30% of the total cases have been booked through the automated system.However, there are also complaints of motorists being slapped with fines for offences they never committed. Officials say errors in identifying registration numbers from CCTV cameras and fake number plates are the reasons for such mistakes and a motorist can substantiate his/her claim by providing evidence.“We have received such complaints from some motorists but we are ready to look into such cases,” a police officer said.