RTO apathy leaves form-vending kiosks in city dysfunctional

Lack of maintenance and negligence by officials have left touch-screen kiosks installed at three Regional transport offices (RTO) — Tardeo, Wadala and Andheri — gathering dust.

Lack of maintenance and negligence by officials have left touch-screen kiosks installed at three Regional transport offices (RTO) — Tardeo, Wadala and Andheri — gathering dust.

HT Image

Costing around Rs1 lakh each, the kiosks were installed in January 2009.

The kiosks helped citizens to approach the offices directly without seeking help from agents. Apart from giving information related to various RTO procedures, the machine could print more than 110 different RTO forms. The software was developed by National Informatics Centre in Pune and Phoenix Micro-systems had designed the kiosks.

Despite proving useful to the citizens, the dysfunctional kiosks at Wadala and Andheri RTO are lying outside the cabin of RTO Vikas Pandkar and Bhalchandra since long. Though HT found that the kiosk at Tardeo RTO was not in working condition, MB Patil, officer at the RTO claimed that it was working. “There is a problem with printing of forms. But, you can get those at our public relation office.”

Initially, the kiosks were installed at RTO offices in the city with the help of the Western India Automobile Association (WIAA). As people found them useful, the transport department got 35 more machines for other offices in the state, spending around Rs40 lakh.

Barring 4-5 offices such as those in Kalyan and Baramati, the machines are lying unused at most places. A senior RTO official said that the offices as well as citizens failed in maintaining the machines well.

Transport commissioner VN More has promised to look into the issue.

“RTO should have maintained it properly as the machines were of great use,” said Nitin Dossa, executive chairman, WIAA.