The Transport Department will soon put in place driving simulators for testing the driving skills of aspirants before issuing licences.
The first-of-its-kind driving simulator will be set up at the Regional Transport Authority office in Khairatabad. The decision has been taken after some city-based firms equipped with the technology to operate the simulators evinced interest in setting up the facility and operating it.
Accordingly, the department has decided to select the firm with state-of-the-art technology for setting up the simulator and it will be allowed to operate the facility collecting nominal charges from those undergoing driving tests. “Aspirants will have to pass the test in the simulator which will be a qualifier for the actual driving test,” a senior official said.
Senior officials of the Transport Department led by its secretary Sunil Sharma inspected the Khairatabad RTA on Thursday to identify a suitable location within the premises for setting up the facility. “We will provide them the space for setting up the infrastructure required. The simulator will become operational within a month or so as the selected firm will utilise pre-fabricated material in setting up the necessary infrastructure,” the official told The Hindu .
The department was also actively considering setting up permanent pollution testing centres at different places across the city. It was decided in principle to set up permanent infrastructure for pollution testing centres at RTA office premises in Khairatabad, Secunderabad and Bandlaguda. In addition, efforts are underway to identify three petrol pumps in different parts of the city, depending on the availability of space and customer inflow for setting up pollution testing centres.
The exercise, according to officials, was aimed at phasing out vans stationed at different locations that were presently issuing the pollution under check certificates to different vehicles and ensure a centralised system for the same.
