The Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) has intensified its drive against riders of illegally modified two-wheelers, by registering cases against 44 of them.
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Cases have also been registered against another 10 riders for reckless driving. This follows a directive issued by Transport Commissioner S. Sreejith in the wake of an increase in number of accidents involving two-wheelers.
Apart from illegal modification and retrofitting of spares, the rule violations included signal jumping and over-speeding, MVD sources said.
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Few two-wheeler riders know that hardly two inches of each tyre is in contact with the road, at any given time. On an average, a two-wheeler being driven at 60 kmph needs a braking distance of 16 metres to stop. The braking distance increases with speed. This means they ought to be driven safely and while maintaining sufficient gap with vehicles in the front, said an official of MVD’s enforcement wing.
On why the MVD is not acting against shops that sell spares that are illegally retrofitted in two-wheelers, especially motor bikes, he said this is because some of these spares have been permitted for use in huge estates and sprawling private lands located in the high ranges, among other places.
The MVD also has limitations in acting against such shops, since its duty is mainly rule enforcement.
Earlier this year, the department had decided to slap a flat fine of ₹7,000 on motorists for causing noise pollution and illegal alteration, as part of Operation Silence, which was launched in February.
Most enforcement squads have decibel meters to measure the noise emitted by vehicles and their horn. Rule violations like removing the silencer or their illegal alteration could be detected even without decibel meter. In most cases, owners remove the catalytic converter portion of the silencer, and a hollow tube of the same dimension is welded together to resemble a proper silencer. This violation can be detected simply by poking a stick into the silencer. The noise specified for each vehicle, including that of the horn, is mentioned in Form 22. It should not exceed that limit.