Until last month, traffic fines for even the most serious errors were issued on paper, with no way to check if a driver was a repeat offender, says Baharambe. “We’ve been running the programme for just one month, and already we’ve given out over 150,000 fines.”

Bharambe seems a credible candidate for the huge task of modernising Mumbai’s archaic traffic policing system. His office walls feature images of the Hindu elephant god Ganesh as well as live streams of CCTV footage from around the city; on his wrist is an Apple watch. He has a black belt in karate, a 10-year winning streak in state-wide shooting competitions, and a solid record as a policeman – his achievements include setting up the rapid response team during the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008. And he has a history of introducing tech-based initiatives as superintendent of police in Sangli and Thane, two cities near Mumbai.

As well as digitising traffic offences, his plan includes the more analogue solution of new hydraulic towing vans, which can move 4x4s – until now, SUVs that had been badly parked or involved in collisions had to be left on the road until their driver moved them. He has also invested in digital signboards to warn about roadworks or accidents. “This is the first time that something like this is being done in the country.”

One floor below Bharambe’s office, Kishore Shinde, the traffic police’s first head of multimedia, is checking on pairs of uniformed police officers – these are the officers tasked with using the new CCTV cameras to issue tickets and fines remotely. Shinde also oversees a new complaints system, which receives more than 300 messages from frustrated drivers every day.

“The biggest issues are traffic jams, no parking, accidents, and oil spills on the road,” he says. “We’re making all the fines cashless, so drivers can pay via credit card or mobile phone. We know there is corruption and bribery even in our own department, like there is from top to bottom everywhere in India. But once you pay by credit card, that means we have a record of the transaction. No police officer can just take a cut for themselves.”

Although digitising Mumbai’s traffic operations is a significant shift that could improve efficiency and reduce corruption, Siddharth Pandya, brother of Archana, doubts it will have much impact on the death toll. “Nothing has changed,” he says. “Many of the CCTVs police installed before are not properly maintained or don’t work, so why would it be different now? Where Archana was killed there was a CCTV camera, but it was broken, so we never found out who hit her.”

Bharambe, for his part, argues that Mumbai’s collision statistics look worse than other Indian cities because the Mumbai police are better at recording accidents. He argues that Delhi has four times as many vehicles as Mumbai but barely records any no-injury accidents, in a deliberate effort to keep crash statistics low. He also points to mismanagement, corruption and red tape within a complex web of urban planning authorities. “We have to keep cleaning up their mess,” he says.