The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) will tighten its grip on automobile pollution testing centres to ensure that they comply with the emission norms and do not issue the certificate to polluting motor vehicles.
All pollution testing centres will be linked with Vahan, a central depository to store data relating to vehicles, in a phased manner for transmission of pollution under control (PUC) data on real time.
MoRTH has notified the necessary amendments in Rule 115 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 to ensure compliance by the PUC centres. The data linkage of PUCs with the Vahan database is expected to bring on board all the compliant and non-compliant test results.
The linkage has to be completed by October 1, 2018 in Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and in all the remaining States, except the National Capital Territory of Delhi, by April 1, 2019. All classes of motor vehicles will have to take the PUC certificate after one year of hitting the road. The certificate issued is valid for six months.
MoRTH has asked States to ensure calibration of PUC machines regularly by third-party agencies duly authorised by the Transport Department. Further, it has been decided to carry random checks of the centres and conduct an enforcement drive.
The MoRTH initiative has come at a time when the attempt for real-time monitoring of 574 centres and to make PUC certificates tamper-proof has failed to take off in the State. The linkage of the centres to a central server of the Motor Vehicles Department through the software of Keltron was mooted in the wake of rampant malpractices, fake certificates and adverse reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
State Transport Commissioner K. Padmakumar told The Hindu on Monday that formalities are being completed and that the centres in Kerala will be linked to the server in six months. V. Mohankumar of the Association of Authorised Testing Centres said all the loopholes should be plugged to prevent tampering of machines and certificates.
