Pune: Pune’s Regional Transport Office (
RTO) has decided to offer 100 special slots on public holidays and Sundays to clear the backlog of vehicles waiting to undergo the fitness tests.
More than 1,000 vehicles, used for ferrying schoolchildren, are yet to get their annual fitness certificates from the RTO. Sanjay Raut, the deputy RTO of Pune, said to get a vehicle tested on a holiday/Sunday, the vehicle owner must visit the RTO and apply for a slot, to be allotted manually.
“The brake testing track at Dive Ghat is currently testing 250 commercial vehicles every day. It has been decided that on all holidays, a slot for 100 vehicles would be created so that school transport vehicles can be checked without a delay. If a vehicle has an appointment for a test in March, the owner can come to the office and put in a request for a slot on any holiday,” Raut said.
The commercial vehicles must get the fitness certificate from the RTO each year. A vehicle is subjected to several tests before it is declared fit to ply on the roads. “After the brakes are tested, all the other technical aspects of the vehicle are checked. It takes between 20 minutes and half-an-hour for a vehicle to complete the checks. There are five test tracks at the Dive Ghat facility. We can give appointments to 250 vehicles per day. If a vehicle owner applies online for an appointment on Tuesday, the appointment will be scheduled after a month. However, we do not want vehicles carrying students to wait in the queue as the safety of children cannot be compromised,” an official said.
Sudha Sharma, a parent, said the RTO must complete the fitness tests of school vehicles. “Though we always check with the drivers as to whether the vehicle is in good shape or not, we don’t know the technical aspects. The drivers always say ‘all is fine.’ We have been hearing about the PMPML buses catching fire and poor maintenance is the cause. My child goes to school in a small CNG vehicle and if tests aren’t done on time, it is a matter of concern,” Sharma, from Kondhwa, said.
