Govt asks states to ensure linking of emission test data with Vahan database

The Centre on Monday asked all states to ensure linking of emission test data of vehicles with Vahan database.

The Road Transport and Highways Ministry had earlier issued a notification for amendment in the rule 115 of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 in June, 2018 for linkage of PUC certificate with Vahan database.

"It is requested that all the PUC (pollution under control) vendors be directed to comply with the guidelines to facilitate electronic uploading of emissions test data to vahan data base...," the ministry said in an advisory to the states.

In a letter to the chief secretaries of all the states and Union territories, the ministry has stressed upon adopting this step urgently especially since the operationalisation of certain provisions of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019 and the revised provisions for penalties for driving vehicle violating air pollution standards etc as per the directions of the Supreme Court, the ministry said in a statement.

It said the government has reiterated the necessity of linking all vehicle data with Vahan database to avoid harassment and inconvenience to citizens.

"This information should be available to citizens in electronic form also in m-Parivahan and e-Challan platforms for their convenience," it added.

The government has set up a central depository called Vahan to store data relating to all vehicles.