Lagos to deploy new platform, PayVIS to track, fine traffic offenders

• Vehicle inspection now compulsory for roadworthiness certificates, says VIS

The Lagos State government has launched a number plate detection platform, PayVIS, which will capture vehicle offenders whenever they violate traffic laws and then bill them.

PayVIS is an initiative of the Lagos State Vehicle Inspection Service. Traffic cameras located beside traffic lights will capture traffic offenders without the presence of traffic officials on the roads.

According to the information contained in the website of PayVis, the platform, ‘PlateDetect,’ is a traffic analytics and access control application developed for Lagos State’s Vehicle Inspection Service to track, monitor, and book traffic offenders.

The VIS’s PlateDetect ensures that all vehicle documentation (vehicle license, insurance policy, roadworthiness certificate, driver’s license, hackney permit (commercial vehicles only), and Lagos State Drivers’ Institute card (commercial vehicles) can be verified and tickets raised for violators.

To check whether you may have had a prior traffic offence, vehicle owners are advised to visit their website: www.payvis.ng, type in their plate number, and then click on search. Once this is done, a bill is generated for any outstanding offence.

On its social media page, the Vehicle Inspection Service (VIS) said that it would be showing an understanding of the current economic situation to exhibit fairness and good faith by offering a 50 per cent rebate on existing unpaid fines from January 1 to 31, 2021. Offenders are advised to take the opportunity of the period to pay up, as a 100 per cent penalty would be payable after the deadline.

MEANWHILE, motorists in Lagos State are expected to take their vehicles to any of the state’s computerised vehicle inspection centres after obtaining their roadworthiness certificate. According to the VIS, any motorist who obtains a roadworthiness certificate now has a 30-day window to bring the vehicle for inspection.

Director of VIS, Akin George Fashola, while speaking on the 2021 outlook for the vehicle inspection service, said the motoring public should prioritise their safety.

The practice has been for motorists to apply for the roadworthiness certificate and renew it as the case may be without ascertaining whether the vehicle is truly roadworthy or not. But Fashola said after 30 days when the vehicle is not submitted for inspection, the roadworthiness certificate would be invalidated in line with the law.

He said: “After 30 days if you don’t bring it for inspection, you are going to get a ticket. So compulsorily, if I get my roadworthiness, I must bring the vehicle for testing as well.

It is a must. You have 30 days, and after 30 days, if you didn’t bring your vehicle, that roadworthiness would be invalidated and you would get a ticket.

“All you need to do is go to any of the vehicle inspection centres. We have 18 centres currently spread across the state. Four more would be coming up this year.

“Our particular focus this year is going to be on commercial articulated vehicles. The enforcement is going to be taken to their doorstep and this is not a laughing matter,” he said.

The VIS Director also said the service would be tougher on people using their vehicle for commercial operation without being registered.