The traffic police are all set to acquire tint metres to check the visual light transmission (VLT), in their crackdown on vehicles with tinted glasses. The move closes the loophole which allowed some car owners to roam with tinted glasses as the police had no equipment to check the VLT.
Speaking to Express, DCP (traffic) PVS Rama Krishna said, “The traffic police will be equipped with the tint metres shortly to to ensure that cars with tinted window glasses do not flout the VLT rule. Once everything is in place, we will issue the stipulations.”
Last October, the traffic police conducted a drive to remove tints from cars after an order from the supreme court, which resulted in penalising over 25,972 vehicle owners in over a week.
A traffic police officer said many cars with company manufactured tinted windows have dark tints and most them are luxury cars. “We could not do anything about it since there is no reel on the windows and car owners say they are not at fault. In these cases, the manufacturer has to ensure the right VLT limit,” he said.
As per the Road Transport Authority (RTA) guidelines, tints on windows should have 50 percent visibility, and the rear and front glasses should have 70 percent visibility. However, unlike the black film reels, the manufactured tinted windows and glass panes on cars are permanent in nature and the only remedy is to change the windows and glass panes. As of now, only vehicles of VIPs and VVIPs, who have been provided with Z and Z plus category protection, are allowed to have black films on window glasses for security reasons.