Wikipedia
e-challan is an electronic format of the challan, a term generally used in India and Pakistan as a receipt for payment or delivery. An e-challan can also be defined as a specific format used for depositing or remitting the contribution or statutory payment at a bank or treasury. A challan is a way of crediting the money to one's bank account through a form.
An example of a challan would be spot traffic ticket issued by the traffic police for a violation. This challan would then have to be paid directly by cash, at an e-seva center, or by any other payment mode as specified on the challan. Government of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh has also introduced mechanism to enable payment of e-challans with the help of PDAs on road by commuters for their pending e-challans.
The government of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh has established a new challan system called e-challans. They have also established a website where one can check if their vehicle has any traffic offences registered against it. This website will detail the offence description, fine amount, user charges, and the total fine amount. In Coimbatore city the system started in October 2013 and service uses hand-held machines for Spot Fining System, which runs on a low cost platform named VIOLET (Violation Prevention and Regulation Enforcement), which runs of android-based tablets or cellular phone and is also integrated to a Bluetooth printer to dispatch receipts.
e-challan system is being introduced in other cities of India and is now operational in Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Lucknow, Delhi and Vijayawada. It is being evaluated at Mumbai and Pune.