Surat to get India’s first vehicle fitness centre by 2012

Surat: Come 2012, Surat will have India’s first fully automated state-of-the-art vehicle fitness certification centre to monitor fitness of all types of transport and non-transport vehicles plying in south Gujarat.

The state government has allotted 31,000 square metres of land on the proposed new state highway on Surat-Olpad Road near Saroli where the country’s first fully automated vehicle fitness centre will come up at the cost of Rs 15 crore to be incurred by the central government in 2012.

The Motor Vehicles Act stipulates that every year all transport vehicles, including trucks, cabs, buses, etc. have to obtain fitness certificates from the regional transport offices. Presently, the vehicle fitness is being done manually. But once the new vehicle fitness centre is established, the vehicles will have to undergo 40 different vehicle fitness parameters fitted in the specialised computerised equipments installed at the centre.

“Most of the road accidents occur due to the unfit nature of the vehicles plying in the city and on highways. Now the sophisticated machines will scan all parts of the vehicles and bring the defects to light,” said J N Waghela, regional transport officer.

“This will be the first of its kind vehicle fitness certification centre in the country and the state. Once it is set up, it will be mandatory for all the transport and non-transport vehicles in south Gujarat to take the vehicle fitness certificates from the centre,” added Waghela.

J P Gupta, state transport commissioner, who was in the city recently said, “Special equipment would be utilised to check the brakes, headlights, pollution levels, steering efficiency, etc. The objective is to make fitness test more scientific and curb pollution emission levels in vehicles in the region.”

Official sources said initially the vehicle fitness centre will be maintained by the Pune-based Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), a central government’s agency, for two years and then it will be handed over to the state government.

Along with the vehicle fitness centre, the project will house the computerised driving track for issuing licence to drivers of the heavy goods vehicles.