For most residents living close to a Regional Transport Office (RTO) in the city, simple things like taking a child to school or finding space to park their car are near impossible tasks.
With most RTOs providing little or no parking space and adopting on-street testing (for issuing driving licence), traffic congestion is an everyday reality for residents in the nine RTO zones in the city. During events such as a loan mela which was organised at all the RTOs on Monday, it only gets worse.
Geeta Ramanan, who lives right opposite to RTO South-west (Virugambakkam), said, “The whole road gets choked due to haphazard parking. Children cannot even cross the road to go to school. As no one controls vehicle parking, we need to be on the watch and have to stand outside the gate all morning. Why should RTOs come up in residential areas?”
She, however, added that local officials could not be blamed too as none of the RTOs have any dedicated space for parking.
P. Baskaran, RTO South-west, said, “We do our best to regulate traffic and a traffic constable is specifically assigned every day to minimise the problem. The testing has also been shifted to a ground in K.K. Nagar which we have leased from the MTC.”
RTO South-west was relocated to its present location on Kaliamman Koil Street in Virugambakkam two years ago because of water-logging problems in the earlier building. Many of the records even got spoilt during a monsoon spell.
A Transport Department official said that examples like this show the lack of basic facilities in RTO offices.
“There is a need for quality upgrading and well-designed testing tracks inside the complex. The department has given all the driving schools a timeframe to improve their facilities. It is time we looked at our own shortcomings.”
Insisting that the department take the lead and set an example, M.K. Subramanian, Secretary of the Automobile Association of South India, said, “An RTO office is the most important point of contact between the people and the department. Many RTOs have boards showing four-year-old fee structures which have been revised twice afterwards.
“Besides poor infrastructure, issues such as road safety are not just about installing cameras to catch violators. Systems have to be built to prevent violation, not detect violation. There is a need for a better licensing mechanism,” he added.
Apart from RTO Anna Nagar and RTO South, no other RTO in the city even has its own building. All of them operate from rented spaces.
Transport Commissioner M. Rajaram said that lack of proper facilities definitely had to be looked at as a “larger issue.”
“We have thought of shifting RTOs to places like Taramani where more space is available. But then, people will be inconvenienced due to the commuting distance. We will do a detailed review of the problem.”
