RAWALPINDI - Abandoning the decades-old transport inspection system, Rawalpindi city managers will install a modern vehicle inspection and certification station by the end of December. Talking to APP, an official of Regional Transport Authority (RTA) hoped that construction work for the station on 13 kanals of land near Rawat, along the Grand Trunk Road, would be completed in November. The RTA official further said that the Punjab government had made mandatory for commercial vehicles in passenger and freight class to pass a fitness test.

The test will be conducted by Opus Inspection, a Swedish firm, which is expected to start operations in Rawalpindi by December end. Opus Inspection will set up 39 modern vehicle inspection and certification stations (VICS) in 36 districts of Punjab. Its stations have already started work in Lahore, he added.

According to the new system, buses, vans, cabs, trolleys and trucks will be issued a certificate after alignment, brake, headlight, emission, vehicle noise and visual inspection followed by vehicle suspension verification. The transport department will charge Rs 1,080 as a fee per transport vehicle as inspection fee. Each delivery van, cab, rickshaw and motorbike rickshaw will have to pay Rs720 for their certificates. A renewal fee of Rs540 will be charged from heavy (HTV) and light transport vehicles (LTVs) every six months. Delivery van, cab, rickshaw and motorbike rickshaw will have to pay Rs450 for renewals. “No public transport will be allowed to operate on roads without passing the seven inspections of international standard which aims to ensure road safety and minimize the number of accidents,” the official said. To a question he said that another station will be set up in the city for small vehicles.