Pollution check centres to go online in bid to curb illegalities

PANAJI: To ensure transparency in the process of issuing pollution under control (PUC) certificates, the transport department is expected to integrate existing PUC centres under one computerised network by December. It will also conduct surprise checks starting next month as a part of its crackdown on centres that fail to issue authentic PUC certificates.
“A lot of bogus PUC certificates are being issued. One such centre was recently raided and shut down,” director of transport Rajan Satardekar said.

Goa Electronics Ltd (GEL) has been appointed to create new software and install the same at the various PUC centres across the state. With every PUC being shifted to an online system, only the fingerprint scan of an engineer authorised to conduct the PUC test will be able to grant or reject a request to generate a certificate.
“Presently, offline software is being used and there is no real-time monitoring. Some PUC centres are thus involved in tampering. Even if the vehicle is not there, a photograph of the vehicle’s number plate is taken and transferred to a computer for the issuance of a PUC certificate,” Satardekar said. “The new software will be a live system. Only if one is online will he/she be able to capture a photograph of the vehicle.”
The director also said that the transport department and enforcement team will be given access to this system to ensure real-time monitoring.
He said GEL will soon start testing the software, following which installation will be implemented across PUC centres in the state. “By December, it will be fully operational,” Satardekar said. “There will be surprise inspections during this time too to see who is complying and who is not.”