The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has sanctioned ₹296.02 crore to Maharashtra for setting up of automated vehicle inspection and certification centres along with automated driving test tracks (ADTT).

The decision came about during a meeting between Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, and State Minister for Transport and Parliamentary Affairs, Anil Parab, on Tuesday.

Mr. Parab said the State had proposed to set up 50 automated vehicle inspection and certification centres with technical assistance from the Automotive Research Association of India, Pune. The first such centre came up in Nashik in 2015 with a financial assistance of ₹14 crore from the Central government.

The State established the second centre on land owned by the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation, at Kurla (East).

“Of the remaining 48 centres, we had requested for the Central funding for 10 centres,” the Minister said. The centres are to come up at Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Kalyan, Nagpur rural, Mumbai Central, Hingana-Nagpur, Panvel, Diveghat-Pune, and Nanded.

The government is also planning to set up a number of ADTT for completely computerised testing of drivers. The State in consultation with the Central Institute of Road Transport, Pune, has prepared a proposal for setting up 22 ADTT with an outlay of ₹ 156.22 crore.

“Since these projects are highly capital intensive in nature, requiring a huge investment for executing in a time-bound manner, we had requested financial assistance for 10 inspection and certification centres along with 22 ADTT at a total outlay of ₹296.02 crore and it has been approved,” officials in the State Transport Department said.