TLDR: CARS24’s Orbit report reveals a significant crisis in vehicle compliance across India, with over 50% of vehicles uninsured and low pollution certificate adherence. The report highlights a massive backlog of unpaid traffic fines and proposes systemic changes and digital solutions like Orbit to simplify compliance for vehicle owners.
Unfit. Uninsured. Unchecked. The state of India’s vehicles tells a story we’ve ignored for too long. It’s a crisis hidden in plain sight and CARS24, India’s leading Autotech platform has now put numbers to what we all suspected.
Every morning, millions of Indians hit the road to work, to school, to somewhere better. But while our vehicles carry us forward, many of them are dragging behind on the basics. Insurance expired. PUCCs lapsed. Challans piling up, unpaid.
Built on Orbit’s internal data and government records, CARS24 reveals a stark reality: over 50% of vehicles in India are uninsured, especially two-wheelers. Pollution certificate compliance in key states like Delhi, UP, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu sits below 30%. These aren’t minor misses but major risks to public safety, environmental health and legal enforcement.
India may be accelerating on paper with rising vehicle registrations, highway expansions and digital tolls but beneath the speed lies a troubling truth: we’re not keeping up with the basics.
Between June 2024 and June 2025 alone, FASTag issuance grew by 17.5% and toll collections jumped 17.53%, a clear sign that more Indians are driving longer distances more frequently. The average FASTag balance sits comfortably at ₹408, but behaviour varies wildly from negative balances to users topping up with ₹10,000 or more.
That question gets complicated when you look at the North-South divide. Southern states like Andhra Pradesh and Kerala are taking vehicle health more seriously, with enforcement rates averaging 9.6%, compared to just 5.6% in the North. But even here, the challenges differ. In the North, expired insurance is the silent culprit. In the South, it’s PUCC non-compliance that’s driving up risk. Rajasthan leads northern enforcement at 6.74%, while Maharashtra despite its economic might, clocks in at a worrying 1.9%.
And then, there are the challans. Orbit’s internal insights reveal a staggering ₹5.11 lakh crore in traffic fines issued since 2015. Of that, only ₹1.92 lakh crore has been paid. The remaining amount ₹3.18 lakh crore, is stuck in a legal bottleneck, with 7.69 crore challans still pending in court.
On average, it takes an Indian driver 842 days to pay off a challan. But through Orbit, the same challan gets cleared in just 1.2 days. The message is clear: people don’t ignore compliance because they want to. They ignore it because the system makes it hard. Orbit just made it simple.
“We often take pride in how we manage our money, health, or even our time but rarely do we give the same attention to our vehicles, which quietly enable so much of our everyday life. From getting us to work on time to helping us keep promises to people we care about, our cars and bikes are far more than machines. Taking care of them, through timely insurance renewals, pollution checks, and regular upkeep isn’t just about following rules; it’s a way of showing respect for the freedom they give us and for the safety of everyone we share the road with.” said Gajendra Jangid, CMO, CARS24
CARS24 urges a systemic shift , linking insurance and PUCC to vehicle resale and tax renewal, incentivise compliance with tax or insurance benefits, equip fleet owners with health dashboards and most importantly, run regional campaigns based on local behavior patterns. The report proposes mobile PUCC vans for targeted SMS alerts as well.
Orbit is CARS24’s all-in-one car management system, giving users a powerful dashboard to stay on top of their vehicle’s health, real-time car valuation, PUC status, pending challans, insurance validity, service history and even scrapping options. With a secure document vault and a suite of connected services, Orbit makes car ownership simpler, smarter and stress-free
