It will not be easy for corrupt transport officials to take bribes for providing fitness certificates as Assam is very soon launching automated testing stations. An Automated Testing Station (ATS) is a facility for testing the fitness of vehicles without manual intervention. Citizens can get their vehicles tested at any ATS across the country and obtain a fitness certificate from them. This certificate is valid pan-India.
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A senior official of the transport department, speaking to GPlus, said, “Initially, the project will start in five districts and gradually expand across Assam,” adding that in the first phase, ATS will be set up in Biswanath, Guwahati, Jorhat, Dibrugarh, and Abhayapuri.
The construction work of the ATS in Guwahati and Biswanath is almost complete and will be inaugurated soon, said the official.
ATSs use the latest equipment to conduct fitness testing of vehicles in an automatic and scientific manner. Machine-based testing brings more transparency and objectivity, and avoids discretion in manual testing at RTOs by Motor Vehicle Inspectors (MVI), said the official.
ATSs maintain recordings of visual checks, conceal or mask individual test results until the final report, and undergo regular audits every six months. The vehicle fitness tests, which were previously conducted manually at RTOs, will now be carried out at ATSs as per Indian standards through automated testing equipment.
An online portal will be available for ATSs to update holidays, available slots, view bookings, and upload test reports and certificates. Citizens can book fitness test slots, view results, and download fitness certificates. The portal will be linked to RTOs and the Vahan system, the official informed.
As the registration of a vehicle is linked to its fitness, a vehicle without a valid fitness certificate is essentially without valid registration, said the official. Driving a vehicle without registration is an offence and attracts the following fines as per Section 192 of The MV Act, 1988: Up to ₹5,000 for a first-time offence and up to ₹10,000 or one year of imprisonment for subsequent offences, stressed the official.
The documents required for applying for fitness renewal at ATSs are the Registration Certificate (RC) of the vehicle along with Form 25 of CMVR (as applicable), a valid insurance certificate, the last valid permit (as applicable), the mobile number, and the email ID of the registered owner/authorised signatory.