Gurugram, Dec 16 : Gurugram district has seen a nearly 55 per cent dip in traffic fines as compared to the previous year due to the Covid-19 impact. The Gurugram Traffic police have issued 2,16,199 challans for no-entry, drunken driving, jumping the red light, wrong side parking, lane change, wrong parking and driving without helmet till December 14 this year. In view of the Covid-19 infections this year, the Gurugram Traffic police have issued only 447 challans for drunken driving as compared to 4,067 during 2019. "The reason behind the heavy drop in traffic fines was due to the lockdown and Covid-19 infections. The government had imposed a complete lockdown amid coronavirus. We have stopped the campaign against 'drinking and driving' due to the surge in Covid-19 cases in Gurugram. Amid the infection, the Traffic police is avoiding the use of alcohol breath analyser machine as it helps in spreading the infections," said D.K. Bhardwaj, DCP (Traffic). According to Traffic officials, till December 14 this year, there were nearly 2,303 cases of fines of no entry as compared to 5,337 in 2019. Likewise, 1,206 fines for red light violations were collected in the current year as compared to 5,932 during 2019. Also 38,000 people were fined for wrong side driving this year. In the previous year the figure was 47,594. Similarly, Traffic police have issued 1,788 challans for lane change this year while in 2019 it was 25,721. Wrong parking challans were 35,813 this year while in the last year they stood at 88,716. Apart from this 18,023 people were fined for driving without a helmet this year while it was 38,824 in 2019. "Ahead of the New Year celebrations we will deploy a number of traffic personnel to keep an eye on drunk offenders at different stretches and locations across the city. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we will not use alcohol machines to avoid infections," Bhardwaj added. /IANS