[pjbiju]

Link to the article - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/37931484.cms

Some highlights are below:

PUNE: The central government is mulling a proposal where all vehicles in the country will have to undergo a stringent scrutiny for their roadworthiness every year.

Expressing concern over the increasing number of road accidents because of ill-maintained vehicles which is also a cause for air pollution the government plans to set up model inspection and certification centres in all states with public-private partnership.

The inspection centres will check all parameters related to the safety of vehicle, including the braking system, tyre condition and emissions.

....

The ministry recently sent out letters to the principal secretaries of all states with details about the proposed inspection and certification centres. In its introductory note, the ministry said that an increasing number of vehicles in the country are not roadworthy. "Poor maintenance and servicing of old vehicles not only damages the environment but also poses great safety hazards on the road. Even though new-technology vehicles meeting stringent emission and safety standards have been introduced, there are still a lot of old vehicles operating on the roads. Any vehicle which is not maintained well would be an environmental and safety hazard," the note added.

....

My take on this. We all know how the pollution certificate centers work. They issue certificates without even seeing the vehicle. As long as corruption does not come down, how are these things going to work? It may be hassle-free in states where you can get work done from RTO without having to pay bribes.

And I also believe they have got the root cause wrong. High rate of accidents are not because of poorly maintained vehicles but because of ill-trained drivers with absolutely no driving sense. They should make the tests for driving licenses much stricter and a standard (properly designed) one implemented across India. They should start penalizing the drivers for erroneous driving by suspending, cancelling licenses and by increasing the insurance amounts. All traffic signals and major junctions should be camera-monitored with automatic challan generation. All traffic violations should be video recorded and the penalty amounts should be really high. Traffic Police/RTO should never be allowed to collect the fine directly (stops bribe). They should only issue a challan that will have to be paid at designated offices (banks, Post-Offices, RTO offices, courts etc.). There are many other measures that can be taken to reduce accidents much more effectively than this one.

[bravo6]

I second your view that driver education is more important than yearly fitness tests. Personally, I'd be so much happier if they had proposed yearly renewal of Driving License instead. (Assuming they actually conduct the test properly).

Commercial vehicles are currently required to undergo fitness tests every two years. How many buses and lorries are plying around with no tail lights? Government owned & maintained city buses seldom have functional brakelights. IMHO this just generates more revenue for the govt., and is of little value to the general public, unless it is implemented in a manner where it would be impossible to buy the fitness certificate. Fat chance of that happening.

FYI, the tests conducted to certify the fitness of a vehicle for road use can are listed here: http://delhigovt.nic.in/newdelhi/dep...port/tr9.asp#5

90% of the vehicles out there should have failed to get the fitness certificate!

From the article:

The ministry also wants a system where people can get good repairs and maintenance for their vehicles at garages and workshops. Based on their facilities and manpower, these garages would be given star ratings.

This looks interesting. It would either step up the service quality of said garages or they may just "buy" more stars and push the expense to the customers.

[abirnale]

In my personal opinion, this is a positive thing if it happens. The only catch is - not annual fitness tests. The tests should be around 2-3 years periodicity. I remember our cars needing bi-annual checks called as state inspection when I was in USA. It was some 60 point check that includes small things such as wiper, headlights, basic safety gear operation like seat belts, tyre conditions and tread depth. All of that unless found in roadworthy condition, your license plates won't renew!

If a similar fitness test is implemented in India, we would have roadworthy vehicles on the road that will reduce some accidents if not all. And its a good thing to take care of your car if not willingly then forcibly

Of course there are many other things like driving license etc that needs similar measures. But lets start somewhere and its Ok if that start is vehicle fitness.

[blacksport]

This would sound exciting, but won't work in India. It would only lead to more corruption. We can't ape everything that is practiced in the west, as we are a different type of nation. The west has less corruption and a more law-abiding population. Disaster, if this is tried in India.

Government should stop all these gimmicks and concentrate on improving the roads. Is this the kind of small government that was promised?

[swiftnfurious]

While it a good initiative, there are lot more things to be done. I have seen very high polluting vehicles and those with one woking head lamps instead of two and also the vehicles with NO tail lamps working. Had a couple of close shaves too. More than these rules, the execution needs better scrutiny ensuring there are NO loose ends.

Edit:: I think the first thing in place should be a central database with the details of every vehicle. All the vehicles which passes thru, should be updated and hence a tracking for those vehicles which have NOT complied should be possible!

[mikem]

There is no way this can be implemented in a city like Mumbai. This idea is most definitely from some Babu who's running low on cash or is looking for a new apartment for his kids!!

There are 23,50,000 vehicles registered in Mumbai. This excludes those running on out of Mumbai plates. We have 4 R.T.O.'s in Mumbai.

23.50 lacs / 4 = 587500 vehicles per RTO.
Assuming the R.T.O works 300 days a year, each R.T.O would need to check / certify approx 1958 vehicles every day.

@ 7 hours of work every day it turns out to 280 vehicles every hour.

Most of us have seen the serpentine line for the inspection of Yellow / Black taxis on Worli Seaface. Most of them don't have any working brake lights, some have messed up suspensions and the list goes on.... But when they are inspected at the front of the queue all the defects magically disappear in front of the inspecting officer, only to reappear after the inspection is completed. Harry Potter's cloak in action??

I once asked a cabbie about the inspections and he told me its a mere eyewash and costs them around Rs.300 to grease their way through. He was very comfortable with the 300 & said 300 is almost nothing to get the major passing done!!

They need to fix the current system instead of having it expanded to cover more types of vehicles.

[wheeledsoul]

Very good move I'd say. Only thing is it must be implemented properly. But yes, as long as there is corruption it'll all be gone for a toss, but then corruption is something which will take strong political will (civilian will too, yes!) and few decades, to be rooted out.

About road accidents, here's what wiki says:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ted_death_rate

Found something striking in this, the "road fatalities per 100,000 vehicles" is high only in 3rd world and developing countries, that means it's got more to do with roads/infrastructure but not driving skills (just my assumption).

[an_and]

Simply put, without building mechanisms to actually get the work done - this is just a recipe for more corruption. While the government mulls over such ideas, it should actually try to weed out the root causes first! In this case it could be of the process of issuing licenses to begin with

[ghodlur]

Well said Mikem.

While the concern expressed by the govt is geuine and is the reality today there is is an urgent need to censure the the ill maintained vehicles. I simply loathe to see heavy vehicles spweing black smoke and break the PUC rules blatantly while the regualr tax payer takes effort of ensuring that he complies with all the norms. I have seen even the govt vehicles emit the smoke so for starters let the govt start the initiative on its own departments and if successful can be rolled out elsewhere.

The rules of issuing driving licence needs to be made more stringet and stricter so that the second issue of bad drivers is eliminated. The first step which comes to my mind is removal of touts/agents from the RTO process altogether. Get the process computerized totally. Even the fees payment should be online rather than manual.

Like Mikem said, getting this initiative working in Mumbai atleast will lead to more corruption rather than the eradication of it.

[Dry Ice]

In my view, on-the-spot challans will be more effective to weed out unfit vehicles. Instead of piling up vehicle at fitness centers on a prescribed date why not make provision for challan on-the-spot, state of registration not withstanding? Non functioning lights, polluting etc are already part of MV Act, AFAIK - just fix the enforcement part.

When it's a planned exercise, it's bound to fail in a country like ours where most people have the single minded determination to beat the law - for anything and everything.

[karthik_ag1]

In my view, this is a good initiative. The implementation as such is a big question mark. Have been reading in the papers about the government thinking about making changes to the archaic motor vehicles act based on certain rules in UK. UK has such annual tests for vehicles over the age of 3 run by their ministry of transportation - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOT_test .

[mikem]

Originally Posted by karthik_ag1

In my view, this is a good initiative. The implementation as such is a big question mark. Have been reading in the papers about the government thinking about making changes to the archaic motor vehicles act based on certain rules in UK. UK has such annual tests for vehicles over the age of 3 run by their ministry of transportation - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOT_test .

MOT tests in Britain are carried out by Licensed garages (around 21000 locations). In some cases its an A.S.S. But most are independent garages licensed to conduct the MOT inspection. Remember the quality of Independent Garages in Britain have a completely different level of equipment and qualifications as compared to those in India. They all have diagnostic equipment which will put independent in India to shame. They also have incomparable access to genuine / up to manufacturer spec spare parts. This is non-existent in India. Imagine going to an A.S.S. over here for an equivalent inspection. They would not pass the car unless you carry out the repairs they deem necessary to get the car up-to code.

Imagine the windfall in revenue for an A.S.S. if this became reality !!

[amit]

If they implement this seriously then not a single taxi, auto-rikshaw, truck & bus in India will pass the test. We will also have taxi/auto & transport unions going on strike citing increase in cost of their services & transportation cost which will ultimately fuel inflation. Until political parties don't get out of union business or handle it maturely, nothing will change. I hope they will conduct this test seriously on state transport buses as well specially since these buses carry the most number of people.

As for accidents, badly designed, executed & ill maintained roads cause more accidents then ill maintained vehicles. Pollution is there because of bad roads and government owned oil companies inability to supply better quality fuel. Let the government look within first and then come out to punish ordinary people. This 'mai baap who can do no wrong' attitude of every government has to change. I really don't know how though!

Japan Implements this. They call it Shaken (In japanese). They really shake the owners with their checks. They reject any kind of Extra Mods, like different alloy wheels etc when they do their checks. Very strict.

Even our government should Implement such strict rules. This would improve overall vehicles quality on road at the same time improving the # of Jobs in the respective sectors.

Also would love to see government providing some sops to small scale commercial vehicle owners who drive 15+ years old Lorrys/Trucks. Its high time to get rid of them and buy new stuff.

[sandeepmohan]

I love this. If this were to really happen (It won't), our roads will be empty and much safer to drive. Can't imagine how many vehicles will get pulled off the road if this comes into place.