Motor Vehicles Bill in next session of Parliament: Nitin Gadkari

NEW DELHI: The government will introduce amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act in the next session of Parliament to end malpractices at regional transport offices (RTOs) across the country, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said.

“The Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill, being prepared in sync with practices in six advanced nations - US, Canada, Singapore, Japan, Germany and the UK - will be introduced in the next session of Parliament. This will overhaul the sector, bringing to an end the corrupt practices in RTOs,” Gadkari said on the sidelines of a meeting of the Indian Roads Congress.

“The new law will provide a corruptionfree and transparent system with a proper record of driving licences. Data would be utilised in e-governance. International norms are there for vehicle design, pollution control on the basis of prevalent laws in six advanced nations - US, Canada, Singapore, Japan, Germany and UK,” he said. “I have firm faith that the new law will end corrupt practices in RTOs through egovernance,” he said.

Addressing the Indian Road Congress meeting, Gadkari said he has committed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the transport and shipping sectors would contribute at least 2% to the GDP of the country in next two years.

Gadkari admitted that the highways sector was going through a rough patch with 21 out of 51 road-widening projects stuck. Developers have dropped projects worth about .`50,000 crore in the absence of lack of land acquisition or delays in green nods. “Not a single kilometre of highway network could be added in July which is not good but the ministry has resolved to build 30 km of highways a day in the next two years,” he said.

He said detailed project reports (DPRs) will be prepared by the ministry. “Gone are the days when Planning Commission used to do planning for our roads and now the ministry will prepare its own DPRs,” he said.

He also said the ministry was looking to generate additional revenue through laying of optical fibre, power transmission, gas and iron ore slurry pipelines across the length of about one lakh km of national highways