Just 1 for the road: Gujarat mulls car ownership cap

GANDHINAGAR: To fight the growing menace of traffic congestion, the Gujarat government is mulling imposing a ‘one citizen, one vehicle’ policy to control the zooming vehicle population in the state.
The policy will ban the ownership of more than one vehicle per person. The move is significant, coming after the Gujarat high court pulled the authorities for doing little to address traffic problems.

Section 33 of the The Gujarat Road Safety Authority Act, 2018, empowers the state government to restrict citizens from owning and purchasing more than one vehicle. Citing section 33 of the new law, the Gujarat commissioner of transport (CoT) wrote to district RTO officers directing them to furnish details of persons owning more than one vehicle. The CoT also asked for their feedback about the possible implications of the decision. The CoT, in a circular, also directed RTOs to furnish details of the number of vehicles older than 15 years.

Section 33 of the act says, “The desirability of effective enforcement of provisions of this Act or any other law for the time being in force to control and regulate road traffic, the desirability to reduce vehicle density on public roads, the desirability of preventing the road accidents, the desirability of preventing the deterioration on the road system may, from time to time, by notification in the official gazette, issue directions to the authority, regarding control of the purchase of a second vehicle, regarding prevention and regulation of the use of vehicles more than 15 years of age and manner for the scrap thereof, regarding fixing time of the use or prohibiting use of the of the vehicle on the public road in the specific area or areas. Under the act, the government has the power to fix penalties and fines on those owning more than one vehicle or owning vehicles more than 15 years old.”

R M Jadav, the commissioner of transport, said, “We have directed all RTOs to prepare a database of vehicles owners having more than one vehicle as well vehicles older than 15 years in each district. We have also directed them to provide feedback on the likely implications of implementation of the section 33 of the Gujarat Road Safety Authority Act, 2018. The government, after studying various aspects, will take the final decision on the ‘one person, one vehicle’ policy.”