After having scared the daylight out of people all these years, fast, super fast, and super express private buses are now being taken off the State’s roads and replaced with Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses.
Ernakulam Regional Transport Authority has already denied permit renewal to three private buses. The district has about ten such buses that would be replaced by KSRTC buses when their permit expires.
The Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) shot down allegations of sabotaging the plan to replace the buses by issuing temporary permits to private buses when their permit renewal becomes due. “Many of these buses operate in more than one district and therefore concurrence from all RTAs concerned is needed before taking a decision on their applications for permit renewal,” said Regional Transport Officer B.J. Antony. As per a court direction, bus operators are entitled to temporary permit, which can extend up to four months during the interim period until a decision is taken.
An ambitious idea
Transport Commissioner’s ambitious idea of making attendance at a road safety awareness session mandatory for registration of a new vehicle has failed to take off in the district.
MVD sources said it faced many impediments, both infrastructure and practical, in a district such as Ernakulam.
The department lacked the necessary infrastructure and staff strength for implementing the project, a senior MVD official said. Besides, in majority of cases owners do not turn up and it’s the dealers who get the vehicles registered.
The huge number of vehicles being produced for registration on a day in Ernakulam RTO limits alone proves the challenges in executing such a task.
For instance, 519 vehicles came for registration on March 31 alone while the number easily exceeds 125 on any given day. It is practically impossible to conduct a session for such a large number of people.
Approaching a traffic signal without knowing whether to stop or proceed can be a tough challenge. That seems to be the case at least in some stretches in the city and suburbs going by complaints of motorists frequenting along those points.
Vivek G. Menon, a marketing executive, said it’s near impossible to see the signal turning orange at the Manjummal junction while proceeding from Paravur towards Edappally.
Similar complaints about inability to see shift in signals have emerged from parts of Aluva and Paravur Junction. “It’s either guess or the easy formula of ‘follow the leader,” said one motorist.
The Hindu