|
| State plans centralised vehicle testing centre |
| BS Reporter / Chennai/ Bangalore Mar 13, 2009, 00:58 IST |
|
The Karnataka government is planning to set up a centralised vehicle testing centre at Nelamangala on the outskirts of Bangalore. As per the present rules, all yellow board vehicles are required to get a fitness certificate from the regional transport office before hitting the roads. The government has identified a six-acre plot for the proposed test centre which will be operational in the next few months.
Speaking at the Bus and Special Vehicle Expo here, Bhaskar Rao, commissioner for transport and road safety, department of transport said the new vehicle testing centre will help ease congestion on city roads as nearly 1,000 vehicles are tested by the 10 regional transport offices everyday within the Bangalore city limits.
With the opening of the new testing centre on the outskirts of Bangalore, migration of a lot of yellow board vehicles to small towns like Tumkur or Mysore will be curbed. All vehicles registered in Bangalore’s 10 RTOs will be tested at a central location and the fitness certificates will be issued, he told reporters on the sidelines of international bus and special vehicles expo, organised by ACMA, CII and SIAM, at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre.
Presently, the RTOs in Bangalore city test over two-year-old vehicles of all types including autorickshaws within their jurisdictions in Bangalore city and this is causing some pressure on the city’s traffic, Rao said.
As per present rules, all commercial vehicles, taxis and autorickshaws are required to go in for a fitness certificate once a year. However, new vehicles are exempt from the certification for the first two years.
He said, following the economic downturn, the number of vehicles registered in Bangalore city have fallen from 1,100 vehicles per day to around 750 per day.
The drop is being seen prominently in goods carriers and call centre vehicles, which have fallen 26 per cent. The number of two-wheelers being registered have fallen from 15 per cent to 8 per cent, and cars from 10 per cent to 8 per cent.
Bhaskar Rao said the transport department will start issuing smart cards for driving licences and RC books from May this year in the state. It is expected that around 7.5 million driving licences and 6.5 million RC books will be computerised in the state, he said.
The department is also gearing up to introduce GPS-enabled stage carriers in the state shortly. As many as 7,500 buses will be fitted with GPS tracking system in the state, he added.
Bhaskar Rao also urged major bus manufacturers to invest in good driver-training institutes and said the state was ready to support this move.
India, the second-largest producer of buses, accounting for 16 per cent of the world’s production, has a penetration ratio of between 0.4 and six vehicles per 1,000 people. “There is a lot congestion on roads; good-quality buses would encourage people to use the public transport more. Until 2000, we had only two suppliers for the state. There is still a huge demand for the industry to fill in,” Rao said.
According to T Parabhraman, Chairman, CII’s Karnataka chapter, bus transport is going through a revolution. “The commercial vehicle segment today stands a major contributor to the Indian automobile industry,” he said.
Sudhir Meta, director, Force Motors, said Bangalore has a bus penetration ratio of 1.97 per 1,000 people, less than in cities like Jaipur.
However, as part of a newly launched scheme, 15,000 buses will be bought by the state government over the next few months, he said
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Read Business news in |  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Advertisements |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Content Guide
