Last month, an ‘unlikely’ app — mParivahan — started trending on Google Play.

mParivahan saw close to 1.5 lakh downloads each day in September. This was surprising because the app had witnessed as many downloads on a monthly basis till August.

So what changed in a month?

The answer lies in the implementation of the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Act from September 1, stipulating hefty fines for the non-availability of vehicle- or driver-related documents.

This has resulted in a significant behavioural shift, with more people going for digitised versions of documents such as driving licence and registration certificate (RC).

Read also: All you wanted to know about the new Motor Vehicles Act

Here’s where mParivahan comes in, helping users store legally acceptable digital versions of their documents.

mParivahan, from the stable of NIC, the IT arm of the government, went live in 2016. The app is funded by the Road Transport and Highways Ministry.

“From an average of 1.5-2 lakh downloads a month till August 2019, the app is now being downloaded 1-1.5 lakh times a day,” Joydeep Shome, Senior Technical Director, NIC, told BusinessLine . Shome is part of the NIC team that is implementing this mission mode transport project.

Read more - Motor Vehicles Act impact: To avoid new harsh fines, vehicle owners rush to buy insurance

To date, 1.1 crore people have downloaded mParivahan. Till August, there were about 75 lakh downloads. This means 35 lakh downloads happened in September alone.

Searching hard

Additionally, more people are searching for their vehicle RC and driving licence details on the app. Transferring the driving licence or RC papers across States or users typically involves a lot of paperwork, which prompts many users not to update details.

More read: Motor Vehicles Act 2019: Some citizen-friendly moves

“User hits on the app — which means people searching for vehicle or licence details — has also gone up sharply. Every day (in September), we see an average of 20 lakh user searches, against the average of 1 lakh daily (till August),” said Shome.

Higher rating

Not just that. In September, the app made it to the list of top free apps. It is also being rated higher by users on Google Play. Last month, 67 per cent of users gave it a 5-star rating, taking its average rating to 4.4 from 3.2 in August.

Under the new rules, driving without a licence can attract up to three months imprisonment or a ₹5,000 fine. Jumping a red-light or using a mobile while driving can also result in steep penalties.

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