NEW DELHI: The Transport Ministry has written to 10 states asking them to set up new Inspection and Certification Centres for commercial vehicles next year. The states include Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and Uttarakhand. The letter details the flaws in the current inspection system and also provides for guidelines for the new inspection process.
“In the present system, the inspection is done only by inspectors and is restricted only to commercial vehicles. With the new system, we want to bring all vehicles under the purview of inspection. The aim of the units is to reduce fatal road accidents,” a ministry official said. As per the ministry, 1.5 lakh people die every year in accidents.
The new fitness test involves visual inspection of all parts of the vehicle followed by tests with equipment like roller brake tester, speedometer tester, headlight tester, slide slip tester and suspension tester. “Another advantage of the new system is that emission tests also will be conducted,” the official added.
The centres will have all the equipment required for the testing and parking space. “There is a provision in the new system, based on the UK model, to penalise centres for issuing fake or duplicate certificates, not adhering to inspection procedures and not having well-trained and adequate staff,” he said. The ministry will tie up with NGOs dealing with road safety and hold programmes to make people aware of the centres. The cost of making these operational will be borne by the Centre for the first two years. Later, states will outsource it to a suitable agency through bidding.