DELHI YET NOT READY FOR NEW TRANSPORT ACT AS IT IS MORE DEPENDENT ON TECHNOLOGY –JOINT CP TRAFFIC ANIL SHUKLA

Capital’s transport law enforcing agencies including Delhi Traffic Police, the State  Transport Authority and legal courts are yet not ready for the forthcoming New Transport and Safety Bill drafted by, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) to replace the existing Motor Vehicles Act of 1988.

“ The Draft Road Safety and Transport Bill, 2014, stresses on improving the system of catching an offender, streamlining issuance of driving licences, penalty, and registration of vehicles and introduction of digital systems. To check speed limit, it proposes use of the intelligent speed adaptation, driver alert control and eye drowsiness detector, but these are to be managed and made functional by the states at their level. The proposed road safety bill is focused more technology solutions than urban design solutions. There is also no clarity on monitoring and compliance strategies and institutional arrangements.” Said Mr Anil Shukla, Joint  Commissioner od Delhi Police, Traffic  ,while speaking at the two day seminar on ‘Status of Road Safety and Safe Mobility Initiative in India’ jointly organised by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) and International Road Federation (IRF)

“ The bill focusses on Electronic enforcement ,while the present  situation in Delhi is such that more than 35 Per cent of challans sent by sent by post to the offenders  return back due to wrong address. New Act with  electronic registry and electronic disposal system   will make things more difficult for the Traffic police as Delhi still does not have coordination IT  and  electronic disposal and witness infrastructure in courts. While the bill proposes various authorities which aim to bring coordination and integration in multiple transport authorities and to improve road safety and vehicle regulation, aiding accountability and transparency in the planning and development of efficient multi-modal infrastructure.” said Mr Shukla.

“But the there is no clarity about institutional arrangements. When it comes to catching the traffic offenders, the bill is not clear about who is going to collect the fine and how it is going to be utilised. At present, in Delhi, around 15,000 people are caught violating traffic rules; they outnumber the staff present in Delhi traffic police by more than 25-30 per cent and they can be caught only if IT applications are used. Along with this, there has to be proper linkage and integration of the traffic and transportation data, which has to be linked either with the individual’s bank account. This would make it possible to recover penalty amount by debiting it from the individual’s bank account in case of failure to meet deadline,” says Anil Shukla.

The other anomalies pointed out by Mr Shukla included Bills confusion on Modified vehicle adoption, No bus or Truck code, silence on speed governors and jay walking .