Lahore: No mechanism to check commercial vehicles’ fitness’

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Examiner says fitness certificates issued after visual inspection

By Rana Kashif
LAHORE: The District Regional Transport Authority’s (DRTA) Vehicle Examination Wing does not have a mechanism to check fitness certificates of commercial vehicles in the city.

“Yes, the department does not have a mechanism to check vehicles’ fitness certificates. We also do not have enough equipment to examine their fitness. We issue certificate after visual inspection of vehicles,” DRTA Motor Vehicle Examiner-I Javed Iqbal said on Thursday.

He said visual inspection was ‘good enough’ to judge the fitness of vehicles and that equipment were needed only in few cases.

A Transport Department official told Daily Times that around two-thirds of commercial vehicles in the city did not obtain fitness certificates, which is essential under the Motor Transport Rules 1969.

“According to the rules, a vehicle without a fitness certificate could be fined and impounded but the authorities have never checked vehicles in this regards,” he said.

He said the government was losing revenue that could be earned from the fitness certificate fee ranging from Rs 200 to Rs 800 for a vehicle according to its size and engine power.

An official of the District Environment Department said that around 80 percent of public transport vehicles were unfit for roads. Those vehicles were a major source of environmental pollution, he added.

Javed Iqbal said the government was planning to set up modern fitness examination centres across the province that included five in Lahore, he added. He said a system would also be evolved to check the availability of fitness certificates with commercial vehicles.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...008_pg13_2