Nitin Gadkari plans to make it easier to get your driving licence. Here's how

If Nitin Gadkari has his way, you may not need to visit a Regional Transport Office (RTO) to get a driving licence in future. In a bid to end widespread corruption at RTOs, the Minister for Road Transport & Highways wants the functions of RTOs to be severely curtailed, at least when it comes to public dealing and make the entire process of obtaining a driving licence go online. But RTOs will not be shut down because they will continue to perform functions which do not require regular public interface.

A senior ministry official told Firstbiz the ministry has already begun an extensive study of the process followed by UK in this regard. A joint secretary has visited the DVLA offices in Britain and evaluated all the processes where the driving test and licences reach the aspirant without him having to meet a single licensing official. Similarly, vehicle licensing will also be done online.

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But this system is complicated and will take some time to get implemented. “The UK took 15 years to put this in practice, we cannot do it overnight but efforts are on,” the ministry official quoted earlier said.

Last month, Gadkari had said the Centre was in the process of ushering in a law to scrap RTOs and replace them with an efficient alternative system. The Motor Vehicle Act is being overhauled and amendments should be placed in Parliament in the Winter Session.

The ministry official quoted above also said the only way to reduce the number of vehicles on India’s roads is by enforcing stricter safety norms which force vehicle makers to raise prices. He said it would be impractical to follow the “odd number, even number” practice followed in some other countries to reduce road congestion because Indian cities still do not have a well developed public transport system. This practice allows odd and even numbered vehicles to operate on specific days, thereby reducing congestion.

Already, there is talk of the Ministry suggesting that some crash test norms be made mandatory for cars sold in India and if these changes are approved in the Motor Vehicles Act, vehicle prices are sure to rise.

If the government manages to adhere to the timeline, cars may have to incorporate minimum crash safety standards by January by when at least one of the two planned crash test facilities will be up and running in India.

As of now, cars being manufactured in Indian facilities and meant for exports pass the New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) norms whereas those meant for the domestic market do not have these features.

The proposal is to develop a star rating system and an agency like NCAP in India which will rate vehicles on safety parameters. Car makers complain that if they were to incorporate most of the safety features, car prices could rise by 15-20 percent for base models.