Applicants in Punjab would soon get their licences within 30 minutes anywhere in the State. The State Government on Tuesday approved e-Governance reforms to eliminate red-tapism in the State Transport Department.
With this, Punjab may become the first State in the country by April next year to provide driving licence within 30 minutes besides all services of transport department.A series of online initiatives under e-Governance reforms were given green signal by State deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal while presiding over a high-level meeting accompanied by State Transport Minister Ajit Singh Kohar.
Sukhbir asked State Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal to implement action plan before April next year.He said that his sole aim was to cut interaction of common masses with the DTO offices besides bringing transparency in deliverance of all services as well as elimination of red-tapism from the Transport Department.
Principal Secretary Transport Anurag Aggarwal apprised Sukhbir that the action plan contained on-the-spot delivery of learners and driving licence, e-challan system, SMS alerts and file tracking system submitted online to Transport Department, registration certificate and driving license data verification, high security registration plates (HSRP) at dealer point.Department had identified 32 locations for driving test tracks including serpentine tracks for two wheelers, four wheelers and eight wheelers with parallel parking along with public conveniences for men and women separately.
He said that the entire rides would be monitored under CCTV cameras and particulars of aspirants would be biometric. Under e-Governance project whole exercise would be monitored by track centre and control station and that successful participant would get their driving licences immediately on the spot.
State Transport Commissioner Ashwani Kumar informed the meeting that those passing tests would go for photo and get their licences within half-an-hour. “After implementation of this project under PPP mode, people would need not visit DTO offices as all services would be delivered online through Transport Department’s website. Applicants could track their applications through file tracking system of department,” he said.
Aggarwal informed that department was all set to launch e-challan system by providing e-challans through handheld devises to the offenders and traffic enforcement agencies.“Application data would be consolidated and integrated at central server for further actions besides generation of online challans. Violators could pay the fine on the spot or through portal of transport department,” said Aggarwal.