MVD enforces vehicle fitness but has 135 in its fleet unfit

T'puram: Nearly half of the unfit vehicles being operated in Kerala's govt fleet belong to the police and health departments — two sectors where swift mobility is non-negotiable. Data from VEELS, the govt's vehicle management software, shows that out of the 3,591 ‘expired' vehicles across departments, police tops the list with 916, followed by health with 610.
In a striking irony, even the motor vehicles department (MVD), which enforces vehicle fitness rules, has 135 unfit vehicles in its own fleet. Another crucial emergency response agency — the fire and rescue services — has 115 vehicles listed as unfit, raising serious concerns over readiness during crises.
The problem extends across several other departments as well. The land revenue department accounts for 100 unfit vehicles, state GST has 86, excise and tourism departments have 58 each and vigilance and anti-corruption bureau has 48 unfit vehicles. While Centre mandates that all govt vehicles older than 15 years be scrapped, Kerala struggled to implement this directive. Centre offered Rs 150 crore as an incentive to the state under its nationwide vehicle scrappage scheme, which urged states to scrap their ageing fleet through registered vehicle scrapping facilities (RVSFs). Despite this, Kerala has yet to operationalise a single functional RVSF.
According to a govt order in this regard, Kerala planned to set up three RVSFs — one under KSRTC at Edappal (with Brathwaite and Co) and two more via open tenders. These facilities are to be distributed across three zones — north (Kozhikode, Kannur, Kasaragod and Wayanad), central (Ernakulam, Idukki, Thrissur, Malappuram and Palakkad) and south (Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha and Kottayam). However, only the KSRTC-linked facility received approval and the rest remain in planning stage.
The govt also introduced a 15% tax rebate for private vehicle owners who voluntarily scrap their 15-year-old vehicles and purchase new ones. But unlike private owners, govt departments have no such flexibility — vehicles older than 15 years must mandatorily be scrapped. With over 19,000 govt vehicles in Kerala and an ever-growing road traffic volume, the rising number of unfit vehicles — particularly in core service departments — points to a policy bottleneck and an urgent need for execution of the scrappage infrastructure.