City RTOs identify lands for vehicle fitness tests

The regional transport offices (RTO) in the city have identified four vacant lands for conducting vehicle fitness tests that are carried out to certify whether the vehicle is roadworthy or not, for compiling the High court directive

The regional transport offices (RTO) in the city have identified four vacant lands for conducting vehicle fitness tests that are carried out to certify whether the vehicle is roadworthy or not, for compiling the High court directive.

While hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by Pune-based activist Shrikant Karve, the HC has directed the conducting of vehicle fitness tests on 250-metre long tracks. The court has given till October 20 for making necessary provision for the test tracks.

Annual fitness renewal is necessary for all transport category vehicles such as trucks, tempos, buses and auto rickshaws, while newly registered vehicles are exempted for two years. Hundreds of vehicles go through fitness renewal process daily across the state.

On the directive of the HC, the transport department had asked all RTOs across the state to identify vacant lands for tracks.

Sources said that Tardeo RTO has identified vacant land of Aarey Dairy at Worli. Andheri RTO has sought a vacant land adjacent to Fisheries institute at Varsova. Wadala RTO has asked for MMRTA road behind Wadala truck terminus police station, while Borivali RTO has found a land at Malad, for the purpose.

A senior RTO official said that the land parcels are identified with the consultation of district collector offices and the racks are going to be built once the land gets transferred to them. "In the meeting, we have been asked to expedite process of getting estimates for the lands and complete other formalities as early as possible,” said another RTO official, requesting anonymity.

A top official said that they have lands in possession at 19 RTOs across the state and for 11 of those they have received estimates, while the remaining are expected in the next 4-5 days. In case of the 28 other RTOs, lands are not in possession and hence at 22 locations of those, they have placed requests with district collectors.

For two of the six remaining RTOs, the transport commissioner office has approached the concerned departments in the Mantralaya, and in the other two cases, the government undertakings have been requested.