City RTOs to issue fitness certificates to heavy vehicles

The Bombay high court, in an order, restrained four RTOs across the state from issuing fitness certificate to motor vehicles recently. However, city RTOs were spared as they have adequate facilities to test vehicles' fitness. However, there are areas where both Panvel and Vashi deputy regional transport offices require attention.

Both deputy RTOs Vashi and Panvel issues fitness certificates to around 90 to 100 vehicles on a daily basis with the available facilities. The deputy Vashi RTO has 400-metre asphalt road to conduct fitness tests. However, it does not have beam light testing machine. "We have already received a quotation amount of Rs35,000 for the beam light testing machine. And we are likely to be equipped with the facility by next month," said Sanjay Dhaygude, deputy RTO, Vashi.

At present, the Vashi RTO is running from a rented building in APMC market and has the asphalt track within the premises. "We have a 400-metre asphalt track where we conduct the test," said Dhaygude adding, "Different vehicles require different length." As per the Motor Vehicle Act, before giving fitness certificates, the RTO checks vehicles on different parameters including brakes of the vehicle.

"We check the brakes of the vehicles when it is applied suddenly while plying the vehicle at a speed of 40 km per hour. We check how much distance the said vehicle covers to stop," said Dhaygude. As per the Motor Vehicle Act, it is mandatory for the RTOs to have 400-metre road track for testing. The vehicles are made to run at a speed of 40 km per hour and asked to apply brakes suddenly. By doing this, the authorities find out at what distance the vehicles stop after applying brakes.

The deputy RTO Panvel does not have its own 400-metre asphalt tracks and it tests on the public road near the income tax road in Panvel. "We check brakes on public road and have submitted an affidavit with the high court," said NC Naik, deputy RTO Panvel. The RTO has also outsourced for headlamp testing. In February, Panvel RTO gave fitness certificates to 2,791 vehicles while in the first ten days of March it gave fitness certificates to 896 vehicles.

According to Naik, the testing machine is not available as it is not easily available in the market. "The machine is manufactured outside India and the state has only a dozen machines," said Naik.