Commercial Vehicles To Be Mandatorily Tested Via Automated Testing Centres From April 1, 2023

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) on Wednesday hosted the 20th virtual lecture session on Vehicle Inspection and Certification wherein industry leaders discussed challenges and opportunities on the same. During the session, KC Gupta, Additional Secretary, MORTH India, announced that all M&HCV will be mandatorily tested via automated testing centres from April 1, 2023. However, other CVs will be required to be tested at the centres from June 2024. The government will issue an authorisation to open private testing centres, and for now, automated fitness testing will be mandatory for commercial vehicles only.

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Under provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act 1988 and CMVR 1989, the transport vehicle needs a roadworthiness certificate annually or biannually. The Supreme Court directed the Delhi government and MORTH to switch over the vehicle inspection and certification to an automated testing regime. Under MORTH pilot project to various states, Delhi got I&C Vehicle inspection Unit at Jhuljhuli, about 13 km away from Najafgarh. The total land allocated for this project is about 11 acres, and the unit is developed at 3.5 acres.

The government will issue an authorisation to open private testing centres to organisations like SIAM and others non-biased third parties

The government will provide authorisation only to organisations such as SIAM and other non-biased third parties for setting up private testing centres. Automated testing centres will help improve the quality of vehicles that ply on Indian roads and, in the long run, will help improve new vehicle sales, he added.

Balraj Bhanot, who was part of the event, said, "I have heard that MLO has said that automated testing needs to be mandated by 2023. I think this is a very tall order and will need to be properly executed, otherwise, we will fail drastically in achieving that goal."

He further mentioned that currently there are no workshops in any state across India that can properly fix the issues pointed out by an Inspection and Certification (I&C) centre.