[sarathlal]

The contents of this article appears to cater to one of the root causes we face in driving. Lack of awareness of proper driving rules/etiquette’s, driver capabilities and more importantly road worthiness of being a driver.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has submitted proposed rules that will enable the setting up of Accredited Driver Training Centres across the country. This is intended to be in place by amending the Central Motor Vehicles Rules.

Key points:

• Successful, time-bound completion of training in these centres will be enough to secure a license from the state transport authorities. No need of taking tests in front of MVD officials to get a license.
• Accredited driver training centre can be set up with an application including accreditation fee of Rs 50,000.
• The State Transport Authority can process the application and grant a license to run such centre for five years.
• Centres should have infrastructure of at least 2 acre in plains or 1 acre in hilly districts.
• They should have simulators for both light motor vehicle driving as well as commercial, heavy motor vehicle driving.
• They should also have two class-rooms with teaching aids like computers and Multimedia Projector for holding theory classes/lessons on traffic rules, driving procedures, vehicle mechanism, public relations and first aid.
• Online tests and evaluation are a must.
• There has to be a driving track to provide practice to the trainees for manoeuvring, parking, reverse driving, driving on slopes.
• The centres should also have biometric attendance systems.
• The centres are required to employ qualified instructors
• The centres should have the facility for e-payment, real time evaluation, online evaluation process and adequate staff resources in each category.
• The centres will be subject to a yearly audit by authorities and also surprise audits.
• Accreditation can also be cancelled if the audit finds lapses, which have also been defined.
• A candidate will have to go through 29 hours of training in four weeks, in which 21 hours are practical training including four hours in simulator, virtually driving through rain, fog, night etc.
• For medium to heavy vehicles, the training is for 29 hours spread over 38 weeks in which 17 hours are in theory classes and 21 hours are in practical including three hours on a simulator.
• Theories including everything related to driving including road rage, etiquettes of good driving habits and the like.

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