
As a major push in the direction of modernisation of the process of licence testing, the Maharashtra Transport Department has given a green signal to the construction of an Automated Driving Test Track (ADTT) in Phulenagar RTO, which is on Alandi road in Pune. The motive behind this move is to decongest the city and simplify the process of licence tests for two-wheelers in the city.
The new ADTT has taken many years due to constraints of space and technical considerations. The red light has changed to a green one now, as the authorities have given the project a go-ahead and work will be done by a private company through a tender floated by the Sub-Regional Transport Office. The song will be completed in 12 months, said Swapnil Bhosale, regional transport officer, Pune.
The two-wheeler tests are duly performed in identical manual track in the Phulenagar RTO and four-wheeler testing performed at Institute of Driving Training and Research (IDTR) located at Bhosari. The proposed automatic track in Phulenagar will be a copy of IDTR and a two-wheeler rider can give his or her permanent licence examinations on a fully automated track.
This was approved when the RTO gave statistics of applicants that were increasing in number, as well as explaining that there was enough land to be developed. The old track and brake test area that is in the form of an 8 will now be upgraded into an ADTT standard area.
With advanced sensors, the ADTT will assess the performance of the applicants with the minimum human interference and subjectivity. But authorities warn that the system is so accurate that failure rates tend to be so high since even the trivial cases can be captured.
Although the new system creates equality and openness, the leeway of human forgiveness is taken away. It might be difficult at first to many applicants as noted by Bhosale.
Since automated tracks similar to this one are being implemented in the remaining zones of Pune Hadapsar and Dive Ghat, the city is going digital in a robust and decentralising licence testing structure that is both efficient and comforting to the department and the applicants.
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