A comparable trip by a KSRTC Airavat would have taken 6.5 - 7 hrs.

BHPian DigitalOne recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I had to go to Chennai last week to attend to a family matter. When it was time to come back, I vaguely recalled reading a news article that NueGo had introduced an electric bus service on this route. So took the opportunity to see what it is all about.

I booked using the Paytm app. Weekday (Thursday) AC seater fare was just Rs 524, including GST; To compare, a KSRTC Airavat AC starting at same time was around Rs 780.

Pickup was from Koyambedu, opposite Sangeeta hotel, marked as "Sharma Transports" in Google maps. Paytm app had the link to the right pickup spot, but no contact details of the operator. I did a dumb mistake of not trusting the app but asked the auto driver for the pickup point for private buses. He dropped me about 500m ahead, and I had to walk back in the hot sun .

Pick up spot:

The bus was scheduled to start at 3PM. When I reached at ~2.10, the bus was already there, AC was switched on and the cool air inside the bus was so welcome after that 10-minute walk.

I felt the seats were thinner compared to the Volvo busses. But the recline was excellent and it was comfortable. Less than 50% of the seats were occupied, so I could use both the seats throughout the journey .

The bus started on dot 3 pm from Koyambedu. But in the next two pickup points there was a cumulative delay of around 40 mins for the pickups: unhappy. Operators (including KSRTC) have to do something to curb this nuisance of passengers taking their own sweet time to reach pickup spots. By the time the bus left Poonamallee road KFC, it was 4.20 pm.

There were a lot of squeaking noises and one particular flapping noise inside which somewhat negated the lack of engine noise. (The bus was new, and these noises may probably settle down eventually). It definitely was not 'noiseless' as they advertise. Ride quality was comparable to a Volvo ICE bus, nothing superior.

At around ~6.30 pm, between Vellore and Ambur, the bus took a U-turn under a flyover, came back a couple of kms towards Vellore and stopped at a newly setup NueGo charging station cum rest stop. I wasn't expecting this, as I had assumed it will reach Bengaluru on a single charge.

2 NeuGo buses towards Chennai were getting charged, one left just as our bus entered.

The bus stopped for almost an hour (55 minutes, to be precise) here. The driver initially told 30 minutes. This board is kind of hidden.

Yes, technically 55 is '30+ minutes' but it could have been better informed . The rest rooms are also in the back of the restaurant. I wonder how they are going to manage when it rains? (Is it safe to charge outdoors during rains?)

Ironically, there was a power cut at the charging station, and the DG sets were running on full steam. So much for 'sustainable clean energy' .

The bus eventually left at 8pm and reached Silk board at 11pm (~8 hours) where I got down. A comparable trip by a KSRTC Airavat would have taken 6.5 - 7 hrs.

In summary, on the plus side, the fare was cheaper (introductory pricing??), busses are new, seats are comfortable, and the AC was super effective. On the minus, the duration is long. The novelty would soon wear of and they would be compared with other ICE operators. They need to pull up their socks.

Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.

Who would be more responsible for this, given good road conditions? A slow driver who obstructs the flow of traffic or an aggressive driver who frequently switches the lanes?

BHPian On4Wheels recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

We encounter slow moving traffic every time we hit the road. Be it a city road or a highway, there is no difference. Take a case of a city road, where the typical maximum speed limit is 40 kmph. It is almost impossible to get the average speed three fourths of the maximum permissible speed. It is the same on highways also, if you stick to the speed limit. Most of the trips, the average speed would be less than half of the maximum permissible speed (This is my observation, correct me If I am wrong).

Who would be more responsible for this, given good road conditions? A slow driver who obstructs the flow of traffic or an aggressive driver who frequently switches the lanes? The slow moving vehicle forces the other vehicle to slow down and wait for overtaking. Similarly, an aggressive driver who switches lanes frequently forces other drivers to apply brakes and slow down. In both the cases, a phantom intersection is created which may last long enough to affect the speed of many vehicles downstream.

The presence of many such phantom intersections cause significant reduction in average traffic speed and even, the average speed of the road hog. When you encounter a slow moving vehicle, it is easy to discern that your travel time will be increased by an increment time which is greater than zero. However, I find the number of aggressive drivers on the road who switch lanes frequently is much higher than the slow moving vehicles. Hence, I guess, the second category is that drivers stretch our travel time more compared to the first category.

Since this argument is purely based on my observations and there is no real data to support it, it can be wrong also. Hence, I would like to have the opinions of fellow BHPians on this. If this argument is correct, we can reduce our travel time significantly with a little patience. Thank you!

Here's what BHPian deathwalkr had to say on the matter:

Proper roads.

Follow lane discipline.

Follow speed discipline.

All vehicles on road should be able to reach their designated speed limits.

Points mentioned above with highways in mind.

Coming to your direct question, it is very subjective and is not easy to come to a conclusion.

Here's what BHPian HIGHWAY_PATROL had to say on the matter:

I think there are many factors at play for this situation.

Ruling out road conditions and the sheer volume of traffic v/s road capacity which frustrates most road users, I would say that each road user has his/her own speed limit in any given stretch of road.
In the absence of camera/ traffic police, we seldom think about speed limits or traffic rules. For example, I don't think any of us can swear that we have never gone above the speed limit in Electronic City flyover. Someone driving within the speed limits here will most likely be looked upon by others as a 'slow moving vehicle'.
Maybe we will see a great improvement if all our roads were camera-monitored and there was strict enforcement by the traffic authorities. Technology seems to be the only solution provider. I tend to think that's how the over populated China and Singapore manage to have things under control.

Here's what BHPian tbppjr had to say on the matter:

One of the newly grown major chunk causing road congestion these days is mostly the mobile phone users who have their brains absent on the roads. They are bound to drive slow occupying two or more lanes at the same time leaving no space for others to pass. They are busiest people who have whole weight of the earth on their soldiers, if they won't be using the their mobile phones, the earth will fall down so don't even think of talking about them.

Count the big gadget-on-wheel type cars also in the above category since most of their drivers are also found fiddling with the distracting screen features in their tech heavy cars. And why not, after-all they bought a gadget to enjoy the features, not a car to drive, so they have full right to enjoy it he way they wanted, and heavenly things like ADAS has made their lives much more easier to enjoy the features. So nobody has any right to complain here.

Rickshaw drivers have always been ignorant about the other road users since many decades and gonna remain the same forever so not talking about them.

Unscientific road construction, illegal and unethical parking and encroachments near the road junctions also have been there since many decades causing bottlenecks at every road junction. This also gonna remain same forever so no point talking about them either.

Here's what BHPian Col_Mehta had to say on the matter:

E-Rickshaws!

Their infestation, particularly in West Delhi, has been a great cause of concern for a lot of road users. Did you say max city speed of 40kmph? Welcome to the realm of e-rickshaws with average max speed of 5-10kmph!  Best part - they force you to crawl, you can't overtake them easily and the cherry on the cake is they will abruptly stop anywhere and everywhere without warning/signal/indicator. You really have to be mindful around them. There is always a slow-moving traffic when a shinning e-rickshaw is leading the way. While I understand a lot of people use them for their daily commutes, they are just absolute nuisance for other vehicles.

I guess only solution is the complete dooms day, after which a new generation will be forced to start from the scratch and hopefully they will not repeat the mistakes of the ancestors (us) who caused the dooms day due to their chaotic practices during their lifetime.

Here's what BHPian GForceEnjoyer had to say on the matter:

Drivers with zero spatial awareness and no consideration for other road users certainly has to be a cause. Be it someone who takes a full minute to make a lane change, 3 minutes to accelerate from 50 to 80 km/h, or drives in between lanes to make an overtake impossible, I usually see inattentive drivers causing the pile-ups.

On a recent 35 kilometre drive on Hyderabad's ORR which has a 120 km/h speed limit, the speedometer literally did not cross 90 km/h. The reason wasn't an insane volume of traffic, it was the many slow clusters of 3-5 cars that took up multiple lanes at once, barely doing speeds fit for single carriageways! Each time we passed them, I'd see drivers staring straight ahead as though they were concentrating heavily on winning the slowest car chase in history, or were on their phones.

This problem of drivers being spatially unaware rears its ugly head elsewhere too. Just yesterday for example, I was in an auto at a traffic light. As it turned green, the 5-series in front of us did not move at all for a solid five seconds, despite all traffic in front of it having moved. Some very frustrated honking from a TSRTC bus was what finally got the driver to drop their phone and start moving.

Driving requires effort, and people sometimes seem to forget the perils of multitasking.

Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.

One of the scooterists came up to my left side and motioned to stop the vehicle – I did not stop the vehicle. He then proceeded to kick the vehicle about 4 times, causing damage and dent to the door panels.

BHPian ChristComesSoon recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Here's a harrowing freak incident that happened to me. I have left out most of the personally identifiable information & location references.

I got robbed and chased by miscreants - could have escalated to an ugly outcome.

I left my home at about 6:40 AM today 2023-10-20 Friday to go to my workplace. This is a route and commute that I have made regularly for nearly 7 years.

I was driving my car on the Hennur-Bagalur Main Road around Empire Restaurant Kothanur, Bangalore, at about 7:10, AM when I saw that there were 3 people on 3 scooters (one was white in color, another yellow, and the third a dark color) without helmets and shabbily dressed going very slow on the their scooters. They may have been around 19 to 25 years of age.

They were covering more than half the road and causing a traffic congestion. There were heavy vehicles like trucks going on the right lane of the road.

I sounded the car horn (short beep) so that they would give way. They did not give way. I sounded the car horn about 3 more times (in short bursts) and they reluctantly gave way.

I went on past them and proceeded onward till the next slow down on the road. These 3 scooters came up and now started blocking the road again. I sounded the car horn again. They gave way, but they were giving a chase now. I would have been going about 60 kmph.

One of the scooterists came up to my left side and motioned to stop the vehicle – I did not stop the vehicle. He then proceeded to kick the vehicle about 4 times, causing damage and dent to the door panels.

The other 2 scooterists came up on the right side, overtook me and stopped their scooters in the middle of the road, forcing me also to stop.

They came to my left and right side window and started shouting on why I had sounded the horn. I mentioned that I was on my way to work and that I sounded the horn so that they would give way.

While I was turned to the right window, I did not realize that the person on the left reached in through the left window and stole my phone which was on the passenger seat.

I lost my phone and sustained dents to the car due to these unruly rowdies on the road. I realized I had lost my phone only after reaching my workplace. Unfortunately, in all of the mental stress, I had not noted the registration number of these vehicles, neither did I have a dashcam installed.

Going to the Cops

The same day, in the evening, I went along with 2 of my friends (a Kannada-speaking couple, one a lawyer). I recounted my ordeal to the police inspector available.

He basically talked me out of filing an FIR, saying it's a long process and nothing would come out of it and that it would require a court visit, etc.

Instead, they raised something called an ~NCRT report to block the SIM of the phone, which was stolen by one of the miscreants in that incident.

And another document (forgot what it is called), to try to get insurance cover for the damage to my vehicle. Which he also said is likely not to be honored by insurance companies, since this is technically not an "accident".

Both these documents actually don't address the actual problem.

In that incident, there was a chase that lasted for at least 4 to 6 kilometers. We asked the police to access CCTVs of shops / establishments on the road - and they just couldn't be bothered with that much work.

In fact they asked me to check with the shops myself! The audacity!

In my incident of that day, I held back as much as I could so as not to escalate the situation. Also if it had come to a physical confrontation - though "I think" I could have overpowered the 3 lawless wicked people, I didn't know if they were carrying any weapons. So just didn't give an opportunity for it to escalate.

Here's what BHPian saket77 had to say on the matter:

Someone wrote earlier I guess that either these incidents are becoming more and more common in Bangalore or we have TBHP folks from Bangalore in majority, hence we read more about such incidents at the place. I am also reading more and more of such incidents in B'lore. A dashcam is now a must have; else we just saw what help you can receive from the police.

Here's what BHPian Red_Liner had to say on the matter:

One has to ponder over things like this. When one comes across possible miscreants in 2 wheelers or 4. What has that person got to lose from an altercation with me? And what have I got to lose from an altercation with them?

In every single instance that I have asked myself this question, it was always me that came out the loser by a big fat margin.

Hence, in your case 1 honk should have sufficed. After which music in your car and a leisurely drive to your destination would have worked better. I know in hindsight all of us can come up with better solutions. But your incident will probably act as a good alert for many of us here and hopefully we will ask: who comes out worse in this possible altercation?

Here's what BHPian saisree had to say on the matter:

I know this is going to be humiliating and going to give you sleepless nights for some time now. Smoothen your senses and try to turn your concentration on something else.

Unless you have a great backing, police will not give you any look and action. They are overburdened with many things already and instances like these are very small for them.

Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.

I am married with a kid, and yes I know it was stupid and should have done more financial planning and put in some thought into it, but now its too late and I can only curse myself.

BHPian DasAuto1985 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Unfortunately, before buying my car I read all the ownership threads, reviews but missed out on this thread. Now I own a car for which the EMI is too much and its putting a dent on my finances. I am married with a kid, and yes I know it was stupid and should have done more financial planning and put in some thought into it, but now its too late and I can only curse myself. Any tips/ideas on how to mitigate this, other than of course to get a job that pays more.

Here's what BHPian Caffienated had to say on the matter:

Advantage of Bangalore car market is that it's very forgiving in cases like this. If you wish to go for a more wallet-appropriate car and assuming your car is still new-ish, you can look to resell and probably command close to OTR price with a bit of waiting.

No harm in calling up Spinny/Olx for a quote.

The other option is to just enjoy it as you have worked hard for it, and keep using it for a really long time so that maximum value is realised. The way the car prices are going up, you may feel you got a bargain in 4-5 years time.

Here's what BHPian antz.bin had to say on the matter:

You can have anything you want but not everything. BUT, selling a new-ish car is not financially prudent. You might not save that much going that route and might end up with something significantly older / smaller / less powerful requiring more maintenance than a brand-new car does under a factory warranty.

Try cutting back on other expenses if possible. Try carpooling or using the Metro to cut your fuel expenses AND driving stress. Alternately, try talking to your financier and figure out a way to reduce monthly payments and include a balloon payment at the end instead.

Have you tried quitting alcohol or smoking? That cuts a lot of expenses and keeps you healthier in the long run reducing future medical expenses and loss of working days.

DO NOT Reduce insurance IDV or remove zero-depreciation cover to cut your car related expenses. This may end up biting you back.

Here's what BHPian Geo_Ipe had to say on the matter:

Well, now that you've fallen into the river, you might as well enjoy a swim and get out!

Selling your new car is extremely stupid - financially speaking - and we are financially speaking on this thread, aren't we? So the next step is to foreclose the loan as soon as you can. As others have pointed out, talk to your bank and work a plan out.

Second step would be to hold on to your car for a longer period of time - maybe 10-12 years. Go through this thread to see the value in holding on to your (more expensive) car for longer

Here's what BHPian adimicra had to say on the matter:

I was in this situation some 12-13 years back. My sincere advice is - enjoy the car and try to save other expenses. I am assuming it must have been a dream car for you and that's why you would have stretched. So, enjoy it and may be later stage in life, you will look back and think you made the right decision

At least, that's what I feel now about my decision 12-13 years back, probably because things have worked out career wise and financially and I hope the same for you as well.

Remember, financial planning and wealth creation is a lifelong journey and you can always make up as you have a long way to go.

Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.

Bangalore was placed second on the list of the world’s most congested cities in 2022.

Bangalore has overtaken Delhi to become the Indian city with the highest number of private cars.

According to the Delhi Statistical Handbook 2023, Bangalore had a total of 23.1 lakh private cars as of March 31, 2023. In comparison, the national capital had 79.5 lakh vehicles, out of which, 20.7 lakh were private cars.

As per the data, Delhi witnessed 1.2 crore vehicle registrations, of which 33.8 lakh were private cars. However, the transport department has also been steadily de-registering overaged vehicles in the national capital in compliance with the Supreme Court ban on petrol and diesel vehicles older than 15 and 10 years, respectively.

According to reports, 55 lakh cars were de-registered in 2021-22 and 2022-23 alone, while 1.4 lakh vehicles were scrapped and over 6.2 lakh vehicles received no-objection certificates to be re-registered in other states.

Bangalore was placed second on the list of the world’s most congested cities in 2022, with London taking the top spot.

As per a report compiled by TomTom, commuters spent an average of 29 minutes and 10 seconds to cover 10 km at an average speed of 18 km/h through Bangalore’s city centre. In 2022, commuters dedicated 260 hours to driving, out of which, 134 hours were due to congestion.

Source: ET

The bike really did everything it was asked for. It gave us the confidence to do triple digit speeds all day long and the courage to break and turn in the mountains.

BHPian ramgkulkarni recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

As most of you know, my twin brother and I brought KTM adventure 390 earlier this year. Link to that thread.

With a lot of personal setbacks, we didn’t have a chance to ride the bike much. To give you an example, I did a couple of Blr-Mysore runs and overall clocked only about 1700 kms when we set out to Goa on 7th Dec. My brother did use his bike a little more than me and had clocked around 3500+ kms on his bike.

Finally, the biking gods gave us a break and gave us an opportunity to ride our way to IBW. We both had planned time off around the same time and the IBW timing was pretty well in the same window. We started planning 3 weeks before the departure and first thing we wanted to do was book the stay in Goa. We decided that we would reach Goa on 8th, stay a couple days, and depart on 10th. We found a fantastic place in Morjim right opposite the beach.

Our initial plan was as below:

1. Depart on 7th – Travel from Bangalore to Hubli, stay over with family there and depart early on 8th and reach Goa in time for the festival.
2. Stay on 8th, 9th night and again ride back to Hubli was another layover on 10th.
3. Finally travel back to Bangalore on 11th.

7th December – Day 1

We thought our initial plan was the right thing to do since we haven’t ridden more than 300 kms at a time at this point. Goa is roughly 630 kms from where we stay in Bangalore. The Hubli-Goa route is through the mountains and is quite a fun drive. On the day of the ride, we thought if we felt good, we would continue to Goa rather than stop at Hubli. Since it was December, good weather and Bangalore-Hubli road is brilliant, when we did reach Hubli we felt like we could do another 200+ kms, we left at 7 AM and reached Hubli by 1 45 PM with many breaks in between. By the time we finished lunch and stretched our legs, it was close to 2 30 PM. Little did we know what was in store for us.

Once we crossed Hubli, the roads went from 3 lane expressway to a single road with moderate traffic. The road condition also was unpredictable throughout and some stretches had barely any road but they were far and few in between. The 200 odd kms on the stretch took over 4.5 hours and we reached out resort around 7-7 15 PM. Our bums were sore but we were in high spirits and looking forward to some high spirits of our own. After a quiet night in Morjim and some sumptuous sea food, we dozed off.

First fuel stop in Chitradurga

New Chitradurga to Hubli highway

In our Kits

Pitstop before Goa

Panaji

Final Destination

8th December – Day 2

The IBW starts around 2 PM in the scorching Goa sun. We knew this was unrealistic for us and didn’t want to be so early for IBW. We decided to head to the sea and enjoyed the water for a couple of hours post breakfast. Then we roamed around Morjim and Vagator. Found a place to play some pool and found the perfect little place to have a Goan fish thali. Then we went back to the room, enjoyed the AC for a small while and reached IBW(Vagator) around 4 30 PM. We roamed around the grounds, there were some impressive custom builds and we both loved some Royal Enfield and Harley builds. There were dirt tracks and some phenomenal dirt track riding. We visited the experience center which had some great offers from a lot of biking accessory brands such as Rynox, Sena, Bluarmor and many others. The whole place smelled of petrol, sand and leather. And not to forget – barbeque! The entire place was one big party and we were there to experience it all.

Was it loud – definitely! Some folks loved revving out their big bikes and custom exhausts. There was an entire stall to just do burnout. What else to say! They had something for everyone.

I met a unique gentlemen who rode the OG TVS50 (with peddles) from Kanyakumari to Khardung La. He also had his small collection at the IBW – RD350, Jawa 350 type 640. There were some not so great buids, really obnoxious exhausts but hey! We just enjoyed the whole atmosphere.

Fish thali

Dirt Track at IBW

Vespa from Italy

RedBull

Java 340 type type 640

This sums up IBW

Continue reading BHPian ramgkulkarni's travelogue for more insights and information.

If you suddenly feel that roads are empty as you near Vaniyambadi, don't worry. Everybody will be parked at Sai Sangeeth to have breakfast.

BHPian DasAuto1985 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

From the last 3 months have been travelling back and forth in the Bangalore-Chennai route every 2 weeks, due to personal commitments. The commitments are such, that I ll need the car at both the locations, so travel by train/bus is ruled out. Always take the Hosur route as i stay near one of the Nice road exits. Below are some of my observations from the various trips in quick successions:

• Due to road works, the "fun" part or the "peaceful" part of driving is almost nil. From last couple of times, have seen marked increase in traffic from Nice road exit in E-city till almost halfway upto Krishnagiri. Maybe because those were weekdays. If you are someone who got a new car with Cruise control and wants to try it out in this highway, well i got some very bad news for you.

• The diversions have been discussed a lot, and nothing much to add to it. Maybe its psychological or not, but I feel the diversions have become manageable now, with moving traffic. As mentioned by someone else, lots of potholes have started appearing in the diversions due to rains

• 2 wheelers - Boy, if there was a prize for the most whining in a single topic, I will get the prize for this. 2 kms +- Vellore, they are worst. Not a single person wears helmet. One thing i have understood, its not enough that I reach safely, I have to make sure these idiots reach their home safely too, even though they are hell bent on making that difficult for me

• If you see a red Virtus in a toll lane, avoid that lane. That red guy is me and whichever lane i am that lane will always have a guy who is hearing the name Fastag for the first time in his life

• I always wonder why I don't see any female drivers in the highway, especially between 2 cities which have quite a few of them. At last during the last trip to Chennai, saw a lady driving a Safari, and driven quite well too 
• If you suddenly feel that roads are empty as you near Vaniyambadi, don't worry. everybody will be parked in Sai Sangeeth to have breakfast. That's the main reason i avoid it like the plague. Sree Saravana Bhavan, Krishna Bhavan,Aryas, A2b are some of the safe joints. when going towards Chennai, you can park your car in the side of highway (way off the road) and cross the road to A2B before Vaniyambadi. Do this only if you are desperate, due to the risks involved. Pro tip: Early in the morning, order something that would have been ordered by many(Idli, dosai, pongal), as the quality checks might not be that great. I ordered Rava masala dosa and there was no salt in the batter

• Hydration breaks actually work. Makes you a calmer and more focused driver.

• If you see an idiot driving rashly/overtaking aggressively, slow down and let him through. you know what they say about wrestling pigs

• The only good sections of the roads, there is road pavement going on and that will slow you down further. Facepalm

• Sriperumbudur - Manimangalam route is done and that is a big advantage. The road is littered with cattle, so be very careful. But would recommend this route any day over the Kundrathur Pallavaram route.

• The ideal thing to do is don't keep a fixed time in mind and don't try to beat the G maps lady given time, cos if the diversions don't slow down, the cattle will, if cattle doesn't slow you down, the bridge construction will, if not that then road pavement will, if not that hunger will, and by then you would have reached E-city/Sriperumbudur and your speed will anyway be screwed. So just play that Ilayaraja song, smile at the idiots and the cows and the dogs, and keep driving on.

Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.

The former operations head of VST Ducati is said to have siphoned off Rs 5.2 crore by selling around 21 bikes

An ex-employee of Ducati Bangalore has been arrested for allegedly defrauding customers and pocketing Rs 5 crore.

The former operations head of VST Ducati is said to have siphoned off Rs 5.2 crore by selling around 21 bikes between July 2019 and September 2023. He is said to have collected the money from the customers and deposited it in multiple bank accounts, including one in the name of 'Office Facility Suppliers'.

In an audit conducted by the dealership, it was found that the sale of 9 Ducati Panigales, 3 Multistradas, 4 Diavels, 2 Monsters, and one unit each of the DesertX, Scrambler and Streetfighter, were not shown in the records.

The fraud came to light when customers who had purchased their bikes from the showroom were not able to register them with the RTO.

Source: TOI

My bike already crossed 15 years, I do not ride it anymore. Hence thought of scrapping it instead of selling

BHPian dipdawiz recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

GOI Ministry of Road Transport & Highways came up with standardized scrapping policy sometime around 2021-22. Before the policy was defined, this industry and process was unorganized and no standard for a clean scrapping of your vehicle in a hassle free way. Without involving any other party, you can now scrap any vehicle including accident damaged vehicle, irreparable or old vehicle, not fit to drive/ride vehicles, road worthy or not, in working condition or not, everything. The execution of policy is happening in phased manner to different state and different city. It's officially available to Karnataka, not sure how it would work in other cities, but in Bangalore they have a facility ready.

My bike already crossed 15 years, I do not ride it anymore. Hence thought of scrapping it instead of selling; for reasons that I do not want to go to RTO for renew registration by going to Pune and I lost my original registration card couple of months back while cleaning old documents and discarded it by mistake. I came to know about this scrapping process from an online advertisement of Mahindra as a vendor in the process. The venture is known as Cero Recycling (https://cerorecycling.com/how-it-works). I gave my details for a call back and got a call from Cero within an hour. However the discussion was not fruitful. Couple of reasons for that - My bike is registered in Maharashtra and currently I am in Bangalore. Secondly no original RC. Cero team clearly told, they need NOC/address changed to Karnataka and original RC. I sort of gave up on this and eventually forgot about it.

One fine day around end of September I get a call from someone from Cero. This time it was more promising. The person mentioned, the process is more stream lined and vehicle does not need to be from same state. On original RC, he said a xerox and police complaint copy is sufficient for them. Got little busy with work and family and sort of forgot about it again. This time the person whatsapp me within a week about the scrapping and what I think. So on a Saturday I called him, he explained the process and whatsapp me the documents I need to keep ready. It is actually quite easy.

Visit Vscrap site and login as Vehicle Owner - using your vehicle registration number (the one you want to scrap) and Aadhaar.

Click on "Scrap your vehicle" and fill the application form. No prefill of old address from registration card, you can give your current address. Provide PAN, Bank details, and select vendor.

Point to note - you have an option to keep the registration number with you, but for this it redirects to MH RTO site and it's a paid service. I was not interested keeping a MH number so I skipped that part.

vscrap application page

Go next and upload Aadhaar (or any one from the list given) as owner's address proof. Submit your application. You will get a confirmation mail from vscrap.parivahan.gov.in about the application.

Upload owner's address proof

Application submitted successfully

Now you have to provide images of your vehicle in current state, RC copy, PAN, Aadhar, unladen weight to the agent of Cero. I think there is a way to upload these documents on Cero site too, but I was not aware of this site, so I shared this with the agent. Within 15 min they offered a price of ₹3500 for the bike, looks like this depends on unladen weight. I did not bargain and said ok. I immediately got two mail one from parivahan saying vendor accepted the application and one from Cero saying they accepted the request with an offer of 3500 with all bike details.

Confirmation on vscrap.parivahan.gov.in site.

You can track your application process on Cero

Now wait for towing person to come and collect the vehicle. It takes around 1 ~ 2 weeks depending on their demand. Looks like they wait for 3-4 bike collection to be in line and then the come and collect all. Towing is included in the process, nothing charged for this.

They bring the printout of application you submitted in vscrap site and another printout of invoice of amount you agreed on selling the bike. You have to sign both, handover original RC. In my case it was xerox of RC + police complaint. I'll explain how to get the police complaint done in next post.

They take both documents you signed; along with that, a photo of you, the towing person holding RC card and application with the bike. They ask you to keep a photo of documents you signed.

Bye bye my dear Bike

The bike was taken in the late afternoon, so next day morning I got a payment of ₹3500 (with a mail saying payment initiated) and in next 2 hours I got an assurance letter.

Assurance letter

This is where I am now. I am told it takes 2-3 weeks for the vehicle to be scrapped and I would be given the document of destruction and update parivahan site accordingly. This document can be traded and get benefit while buying new vehicle; this document would be valid for two years. The certificate of destruction can be used to deregister the vehicle if the registration is still valid in anyone's case.

The whole process from initial application to handover your vehicle to vendor is seamless and professionally taken care with all step trackable. The Cero person was also helpful and always answered all question to satisfaction.

If you lose any document, Karnataka police has an online portal to file a complaint with them. This is equivalent of General Dairy.

Visit https://kspapp.in/ksp/api/elost-reports. Click on login, it would redirect your to epramaan site. You have to register with epramaan site if not already registered. This registration is based on Aadhaar authentication only.

Now you can create a lost report. Provide all details. Like the document ID, and any other details - I have provided all the details of RC card. Also they ask to provide last known location of the document and how you lost it.

Upload the copy of original document and submit. Once submitted, you will get acknowledgement in pdf format in your mail. This acknowledgement will show your details, the date time you lost the document and only the document name & id; no other details. But with report id/QR code on document this can be verified by authority. This is how it looks

This document can be produced to any authority to get a duplicate of original document.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information

Section 177 of the Motor Vehicles Act has provisions for offences that are not particularly defined or described.

With more brands offering sunroofs in their cars, there has been a dangerous trend among car owners, who let their kids look out of the sunroof even when the vehicle is moving. Irresponsible stunts like these will now attract a fine in Karnataka.

The state police have announced that those found involved in this activity will be charged with a fine of Rs 100-300, under Section 177 of the Motor Vehicles Act.

Alok Kumar, Additional Director General of Police, Traffic and Road Safety, said that though there is no specific rule prohibiting individuals from standing inside their car and looking out of the sunroof, section 177 enables the police to fine such offenders.

Section 177 of the Motor Vehicles Act has provisions for offences that are not particularly defined or described. Under this section, violators can be fined Rs 100 for the first offence, while repeat offenders can be fined Rs 300.

Source: TOI