CHENNAI: In order to track polluting vehicles in Tamil Nadu, transport department has decided to update the records of vehicle emission tests electronically from April 1, 2019. This means hard copies of emission certificates of vehicles will no longer be needed while getting licences and registering old vehicles.
The emission certificates issued by transport department are valid for six months. However, in practice, a majority of vehicles fail to take emission certificates as it is not mandated by traffic police and transport officials during vehicle check.
Currently, motorists have to produce emission certificate of vehicles while obtaining driving licence, modifying the records of vehicles, including change of address, name change and other corrections.
Presently, the paper emission certificate produced by motorists are attached with application and thrown away.
“The emission level of vehicles so far had not been updated in vehicle records. The recently upgraded integrated Vaahan 4.0 software has been provided with the options to update the emission level, enabling us to track the vehicles online,” said a senior transport official.
The upgraded system to track the pollution level of vehicles will enable the government keep tabs on over-aged vehicles.
Once the new system is ready, it will automatically assess the pollution level of over-aged vehicles accordingly sending warning messages to vehicle owners to take corrective measures, official sources said.
To this effect, the Union road transport ministry has amended the Central Motor Vehicles Rules 1989.
According to the new rule, emission results obtained during testing shall be electronically uploaded through online process to the State Register of Motor Vehicles or the Central Register of Motor Vehicles.
As on April 1 2017, Tamil Nadu has 2.34 crore vehicles, of which the share of two wheelers is 1. 99 crore. While the number of commercial goods vehicles stood at 12.34 lakh, buses operated by State government number 22, 500.
Of the total vehicles, more than 70 per cent of public transport vehicles are over-aged and may possibly emit high toxic contents. “We are not informed yet whether emission level of government buses also will be traced,” said an official.
Warning messages
The upgraded system to track pollution level of vehicles will enable the government keep tabs on over-aged vehicles. Once the new system is ready, it will automatically assess the pollution level of over-aged vehicles and send warning messages to vehicle owners to take corrective measures
REDUCING CARBON footprint