[mukeshgoel]

PUC centres urged to link emissions data with online vehicle database

PUC centres across India have been reminded to upload PUC certificates to the Vahan 4.0 portal, which will let vehicle owners and traffic police access vehicle information in electronic form.

Source

[wheelguy]

Reiterating the necessity for Pollution Under Control (PUC) centres to link vehicle emissions data with the Vahan 4.0 online database, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has issued a letter to all states and union territories in India asking them to ensure all PUC centres start uploading vehicle PUC certificates to the online registry at the earliest.

MoRTH had previously notified all states and UTs of the date of implementation for the linking of data with the Vahan portal, and all PUC centres across India were to start uploading PUC certificates to the online database from April 1, 2019. However, the letter issued by the MoRTH notes that PUC centres in a number of states “have still not initiated the process.”

What this means is that, once implemented, vehicle owners in a number of states will be able to access their vehicle’s PUC certificate in electronic form via the m-Parivahan or e-challan apps. With the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2019 coming into effect, a vehicle owner’s inability to present the PUC certificate could have serious consequences. Earlier, the penalty for driving a vehicle that violated air pollution standards was Rs 1,000 for the first offence and Rs 2,000 for the second offence. Now, under the revised fine structure, first-time violators face imprisonment for up to 3 months and/or a fine of Rs 10,000, along with disqualification of their driving licence for three months, and a second-time offence could attract a prison term of up to 6 months and/or a fine of Rs 10,000.

Leading the list of states to have issued the highest number of PUC certificates through Vahan, is Uttar Pradesh, followed by Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Bihar, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra and West Bengal.

Source: Autocar India

[bejoy]

Karnataka RTO has already implemented this and the PUC status of all the vehicles tested are available in the website. So it is just a matter of linking it to the national portal.

I did the PUC test today and was pleasantly surprised to see the update online. The website actually shows the details in a certificate format for print.



KA portal:
http://etc.karnataka.gov.in/ValidationRegno.aspx

PS. Note that the validity is for 1 year, owing to BS4 vehicle. That's another scam going rounds here, where the PUC folks give only a 6 month certificate unless asked.

[2cents]

So diplomatic. They make it out as though this whole thing is for my convenience. All this means is now I'll get a reminder every six months asking me to get my PUC certificate renewed. They don't even have to conduct checks anymore, just post a fine slip directly to those who do not renew on time. This whole certification thing is a scam. If they are so concerned about pollution they should start with public buses first.

[Aditya]

While this exercise will probably ensure that more vehicles are certified, it is not likely to reduce air pollution if I am honest. They need to run checks on all PUC centers for the genuineness of the certification / tests.

Originally Posted by wheelguy

What this means is that, once implemented, vehicle owners in a number of states will be able to access their vehicle’s PUC certificate in electronic form via the m-Parivahan or e-challan apps. With the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2019 coming into effect, a vehicle owner’s inability to present the PUC certificate could have serious consequences. Earlier, the penalty for driving a vehicle that violated air pollution standards was Rs 1,000 for the first offence and Rs 2,000 for the second offence. Now, under the revised fine structure, first-time violators face imprisonment for up to 3 months and/or a fine of Rs 10,000, along with disqualification of their driving licence for three months, and a second-time offence could attract a prison term of up to 6 months and/or a fine of Rs 10,000.

This is not cool. What if someone is not in the country for a long period or is unable to drive for a while? One day he returns from abroad (or even some hospital) after an extended period and finds an arrest warrant waiting for him?

I seriously hope checks are conducted only after the vehicle is stopped on the road for some violation.

[wheelguy]

Originally Posted by Aditya

While this exercise will probably ensure that more vehicles are certified, it is not likely to reduce air pollution if I am honest. They need to run checks on all PUC centers for the genuineness of the certification / tests.

I always felt the same, pollution certificates are not serving their purpose, we can very easily get a pollution certificate even if our vehicle emissions are well beyond the permitted limits. Have seen cops who check the certificate's expiry date but haven't seen a single cop who checks the emission values.

PUCs are meant to ensure that only vehicles with emissions within permissible limits are plying on the roads, but sadly they are failing at it. Just penalizing the vehicles not having PUC certificate wouldn't serve the purpose at all, they should also take measures to ensure genuineness of the certificates.

Recently when I got my car's PUC certificate renewed, the PUC guy didn't even bothered to test my car's emissions he just took a photo of my car with the number plate and gave the certificate. And when I inquired about that, his reply was "it's okay sir, it will not be a problem".

Originally Posted by Aditya

This is not cool. What if someone is not in the country for a long period or is unable to drive for a while? One day he returns from abroad (or even some hospital) after an extended period and finds an arrest warrant waiting for him?

New solutions and their implementations always come with a new set of problems, have to see how they will solve these kind of exceptions.

[rajshenoy]

Originally Posted by bejoy

KA portal:
http://etc.karnataka.gov.in/ValidationRegno.aspx

PS. Note that the validity is for 1 year, owing to BS4 vehicle. That's another scam going rounds here, where the PUC folks give only a 6 month certificate unless asked.

Yes I too noticed the attendant selecting polution test as BS2 or 3 and i instructed him to select BS-IV. After reading your message, I Cross checked now that the car got issued 1 year validity. While my other car got issued only 6 month validity. Indeed these test centers are pulling a fast one.

So please observe the nature of test being selected by the attendant and instruct him to go with BS-iV(depening on your model) to save the hassle of going to these centres twice a year

[nitishk]

Originally Posted by rajshenoy

So please observe the nature of test being selected by the attendant and instruct him to go with BS-iV(depening on your model) to save the hassle of going to these centres twice a year

I got PUC done on my petrol Dzire last week, the attendant only had to key in my vehicle number into the VAHAAN portal, the certificate was automatically issued for 1 year.

I was also taken for a ride in my previous inspection and was issued a certificate which was only valid for 6 months.

[BoneCollector]

MoRTH has asked for registration of mobile numbers of vehicle owners with the Vahan website.

Link

The Centre on Wednesday proposed to make it mandatory to link mobile numbers of vehicle owners for services related to registration, pollution certification, renewal, among others, from April 1, 2020.

The ministry of road transport and highways issued a draft notification inviting public comments within 30 days.

[arjab]

A practical problem has now reared its head. It is being increasingly found that on many cars registration certificate's, the emission norms, at the time of vehicle purchase have not been updated by the respective RTO. In this kind of a scenario, when the vehicle concerned visits a PUC Testing Centre, the vehicle's registration number appears in the drop-down box but NOT the Emission norms for that particular vehicle - because it hadnt been updated - and that field remains blank. And if that field remains blank it cannot be edited by the PUC centre.
One then has to submit proof of emission norms to the origin RTO who updates the fuel norms and then that vehicle's data "goes live". As proof of emission norms, one has to show to the originating RTO, a copy of the vehicle invoice at the time of purchase or any other vehicle registration/purchase related document which has that particular vehicle's emission norms stated on it.

Now the problem lies if a vehicle of one particular state is plying in another state and that particular vehicle's emission norms are not updated in VAHAN. For eg: KA car is plying in WB. KA car rolls into a PUC Testing Centre in WB, attendant checks and says, as the norms are not updated, the system will not accept the out of state car's registration for PUC Testing. In this kind of a scenario, KA car owner has to send evidence to KA RTO who in turn will update the field and the details will be available across the country.

I know of at least 5 cases in WB that have faced this, spread w.r.t. TN, MH, KA, DL registered vehicles.
In all these cases , the destination RTO could not edit the emission norms data field and it had to be done by the originating RTO.

[toppor]

Originally Posted by arjab

A practical problem has now reared its head. It is being increasingly found that on many cars registration certificate's, the emission norms, at the time of vehicle purchase have not been updated by the respective RTO.
=====
In all these cases , the destination RTO could not edit the emission norms data field and it had to be done by the originating RTO.

Absolutely true, I have 3 vehicles with 2 AP and 1 TS registration, I'm in Siliguri, West Bengal at the moment and had visited the PUC center for getting the check done. To my surprise all 3 vehicles were not present in the database, and I had to come back empty handed.
Now I've no clue on how to proceed, the PUC center guy asked Rs. 600 to get the issue sorted, to which I politely refused. I'd urge if anyone in the forum is aware of how to tackle this situation please do help. I definitely need a solution and taking the vehicle all the way to AP to get PUC checked, is definitely not one.

[arjab]

Originally Posted by toppor

I'd urge if anyone in the forum is aware of how to tackle this situation please do help. I definitely need a solution and taking the vehicle all the way to AP to get PUC checked, is definitely not one.

You have to send photocopies of your car papers which mentions somewhere the fuel norms to a broker or your friend in AP/TS who has to approach the originating RTO and get the fuel norms updated in VAHAN database.
The WB RTO guy actually cannot do it as they cannot edit other originating RTO data.
Other option is to buy yourself a 6 month time window by getting a manual/offline PUC certificate
issued, typically from the PUC testing centres in smaller towns which till now has not been hooked up to the centralised system.

[ananthacharya]

Like every Govt initiative personal information like Mobile Numbers and Full names are available in this PUC portal for everyone to see. It is not even asking for Chassis Number, but just the registration number !!

http://etc.karnataka.gov.in/ValidationRegno.aspx

[Bigzero]

Originally Posted by toppor

Absolutely true, I have 3 vehicles with 2 AP and 1 TS registration, I'm in Siliguri, West Bengal at the moment and had visited the PUC center for getting the check done. To my surprise all 3 vehicles were not present in the database, and I had to come back empty handed.
Now I've no clue on how to proceed, the PUC center guy asked Rs. 600 to get the issue sorted, to which I politely refused. I'd urge if anyone in the forum is aware of how to tackle this situation please do help. I definitely need a solution and taking the vehicle all the way to AP to get PUC checked, is definitely not one.

Same issue with me. I have an AP ( Telengana, now, but this registration was before the state was formed) registered car , now running in MH. Cant find my car in the database at all. PUC is due, havent visited the PUC place now. Wondering how i will get mine done.

I was sincerely hoping that the government will focus more on removing hassles around state-specific restrictions around tax and registration , allowing vehicles to be used freely across states, but the current focus seems to be to keep adding more and more information in their vehicle database to track and monitor more.

[toppor]

Came across this line in https://parivahan.gov.in/analytics/implementationstatus webpage, which says: "* Madhya Pradesh,Telangana and Andhra Pradesh will not be migrating to Vahan 4.0 and Sarathi 4.0"
What does that mean for folks like us who have moved to other states with vehicles registered from AP,TS,MP, anyone with any insights?