Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Transport Association submitted a memorandum to Bhopal Road Transport Officer on Monday demanding temporary fitness certificates for commercial vehicles.
Hundreds of commercial vehicles are grounded on transport office campus for weeks for want of fitness certificate, said association vice-president Hargovind Chauksey, adding that vehicle operators are incurring huge losses as their vehicles are not being plied.
Following the DPS Indore bus accident in January, the department had amended the speed limit for school and commercial vehicles and also made criteria for speed governors harsher. The commercial vehicle operators were asked to fulfill the new norms and then apply for fresh fitness certificates.
When electronic governor is not in market in sufficient numbers, the department should allow the commercial vehicles to run temporarily on roads, said the association. The association has alleged that in due to limited supply of speed governors, the sole company supplying is charging five times the market price of governor.
The department has issued tender to a single company to supply speed governors, said Chauksey adding that it has failed to provide sufficient number of governors in the state. The market price of governor is around Rs 2500 but the company is charging around Rs 6500 to Rs 10,000 for the same governor, besides the agents have also increased their fees, he alleged.
Demanding amendments in the rules, the vehicles operators said that governments of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana states had rolled back the similar kind of norms and so even the Madhya Pradesh government should reconsider its decision.
Speaking on technical lines, the operators said that new vehicles are coming with inbuilt speed governors and if speed governor is installed separately in old vehicle it will impact its speed. The state government had changed the speed governor norms following the DPS Indore bus accident on January 5. Four students and the driver were killed in the accident.
The Road Transport department during a drive to check school buses and commercial vehicles found that most of the buses were issued fitness certificate flouting the norms. Making norms stricter, the department ordered the operators to get new fitness certificate for commercial vehicles. Bhopal RTO Sanjay Tiwari admitting that the association is pointed out at a genuine problem said that the department will look into the issue.
On the allegation that only single company has been authorized to supply speed governors, Tiwari said that the department had opened a window inviting companies for the same, however, many companies failed to fulfill the eligibility criteria and so they were not registered. The officer said that the commercial vehicles with speed governor were not fulfilling the fitness criteria and so have been asked the operators to reapply for the certificate.