The Motor Vehicles Department’s Operation Night Riders to keep tabs on 500 tourist omnibuses operating from key cities in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh to the State will commence on Wednesday.
State Transport Commissioner Sudesh Kumar has asked all Enforcement Regional Transport Officers (RTOs) to form three-member squads under a Motor Vehicles Inspector for carrying out checks on the buses and the offices of the operators.
Notices will be issued to all booking offices which lack the LAPT licence. The Transport Commissioner has asked the Enforcement RTOs to issue closure orders to such offices till they obtained the licences.
The squads have been asked to conduct the checks at the starting or destination points to ensure that there is no inconvenience to the travellers. The RTOs may seek the assistance of the police, if need be.
If any individual fares are found to be collected, then a check report will be prepared after getting a written statement from the passengers as evidence. The RTOs concerned have been asked to verify whether the vehicles are involved in any pending cases of speeding or other offences. The squads have been tasked to verify whether any tax arrear cases are pending against the permit holder or the registered owner of the vehicle. The squads will check if any goods other than the personal luggage of the passengers are transported.
They will also check if the speed governors are intact and functional. A directive will be issued to fix GPS trackers in all vehicles and to tag them with the Suraksha Mitra software. If individual tickets have been found to be issued by any agency, then it should be verified whether the agency has obtained the LAPT licence. The State-level coordination will be under the JTC Enforcement and the Nodal Officer will be the RTO/Enforcement, Ernakulam.
Complaints
Complaints could be forwarded to Ph: 82817 86096 and prompt action would be taken, he said.
The move follows the brutal attack on a few Bengaluru-bound passengers travelling on Kallada Travels at Vyttila on Sunday and complaints from several other passengers.