Get driving licence at your doorstep

Get driving licence at your doorstep

Special Correspondent
Transport Department, India Post ink pact for the new initiative
Move will check the menace of middlemen

Fitness certificate centre to be set up

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

On the fast track: Transport Commissioner Bhaskar Rao (second from left) and Chief Postmaster-General M.P. Rajan exchanging the MoU on the launch of the Speed Post service in Bangalore on Wednesday as Transport Minister R. Ashok and Secretary, Transport Department M.K. Shankaralinge Gowda look on.
Bangalore: The Transport Department and India Post have signed a memorandum of understanding for launching Speed Post service to deliver smart card-based driving licences (DLs) and registration certificates (RCs) on the doorsteps of applicants.

Transport Commissioner Bhaskar Rao and India Post Chief Postmaster-General M.P. Rajan signed the agreement in the presence of Transport Minister R. Ashok here on Wednesday.

The initiative would help check the menace of middlemen at the RTOs and ensure transparency in the issue of driving licences and registration certificates to applicants. The Transport Department would collect stamped self-addressed covers from applicants/owners of the vehicles while receiving applications. The covers containing the documents would be provided to the Postal Department. The Postal Department would deliver the covers to the persons concerned in two days.

Mr. Ashok said there were 85 lakh vehicles in the State. Of them, 35 lakh vehicles were registered in Bangalore alone. “From now on, the applicant need not again go to the RTO to collect his DL or RC,” he said. There are 55 RTOs in the State.

The Minister said a fitness certificate centre for vehicles would be set up on 5.5 acres at Nelamangala at a cost of Rs. 15 crore. The centre would be established in collaboration with the Central Government. The department had submitted a proposal to the Centre seeking funds to establish it, he added.

A training centre would be set up at a cost of Rs. 25 crore at Yelahanka in the city for providing training in driving all kinds of vehicles. A proposal had been submitted to the Centre. Besides, a KSRTC training centre and another centre to impart driving skills, both in Hassan, would be set up in collaboration with the All-India Transport Federation, he said.

The department had proposed to install “weigh-in-motion” (WIM) bridges to check overloading of trucks at 18 places, including Bellary, in the State. WIM bridges would be installed, especially in places where there was heavy movement of overloaded ore-laden trucks. The technology would help transport inspectors to identify overloaded trucks while in motion on the bridge. The overloaded trucks were not only causing revenue loss but also damaging roads. Only the Gujarat Government had introduced this facility so far, Mr. Ashok added.