The Punjab government would set up an Institute for Driving training and Research and a Skill Development Centre at Kapurthala for imparting training to the heavy vehicle drivers.
The Institute for Driving Training and Research will come up at Kapurthala with a cost of Rs 17 crore, said the state Principal Secretary (Transport) Anurag Aggarwal on Sunday in a review meeting of Transport Department presided over by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
Two centres for heavy vehicles — Regional Driving Training Centre at Malerkotla and Heavy Vehicle Driving Testing Track at Gurdaspur — would also be made operational soon.
The department has already entered in an agreement with Mercedes (M/S Daimler India) to offer different skill development training programs for automotive service technician, body technician and electrician, said Aggarwal.
In another decision, the Transport department has embarked upon to set up an authorised testing station to be located in Kapurthala at a cost of Rs 14.40 crore for the inspection of vehicles in a scientific manner.
The work has already been allotted to Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) with the capacity to handle 20,000 light Motor Vehicles (lMV) and 13,000 Heavy Motor Vehicles (HMV).
In order to issue driving licenses for the light vehicles (non-commercial) in a hassle free manner, the state transport department has set up 32 Automated Driving Test Tracks in all 22 districts besides one additional center in ludhiana and nine Major Sub Divisional offices at Batala, Jagraon, Khanna, Dasua, Phillaur, Pattra, Phagwara, Malerkotla and Abohar, he said.
Besides, the department has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Maruti Udyog limited for opening training centres to impart driving skills to the people for light vehicles, the Principal Secretary added.
Aggarwal also informed that work for the computerization of Check posts was going on in full swing.
To provide the comfortable travelling facilities, a fleet of 400 new buses of PRTC and 510 of PUNBUS and Punjab Roadways were being added in phased manner and all these new buses would be made operational within next six months.
Chief Minister also gave in-principle approval for two posts of DTOs, 23 of ADTOs, 10 of Motor Vehicle Inspector (MVI) and 112 of Clerks to cope up with the scarcity of manpower to ensure smooth functioning of these 32 centres.
The Chief Minister also asked the Principal Secretary Transport to revive the body building facility in PRTC workshop at Patiala which has been now closed down due to the shortage of funds.
He also asked the Principal Secretary Transport to create a separate cadre of DTOs and ADTOs to be posted in the 32 Automated Driving Test Tracks (ADTT) with technical qualifications of Degree or Diploma in Automobile or Mechanical Engineering in order to infuse scientific temper in the functioning of these centers.
Badal also asked the Chief Secretary to finalize the minimum qualification requirements before advertising these posts in the offices committee headed by him.
Highly appreciating the initiatives taken by the transport department to make the procedure of issuing driving licenses in a transparent manner besides introducing Dealer Point Registration System, Online Payment and Computerization of Check Posts, the Chief Minister said that these bold initiatives would certainly boost the confidence of people in the transport system, which once was blamed for rampant corruption and undue harassment.