In a bid to reduce corruption and increase efficiency, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has made amendments to the Central Motor Vehicle Rules.

The amended rules will help vehicle-drivers by making it easier for them to produce documents pertaining to the vehicle, reports TNIE.

“Production of registration, insurance, fitness, permit, driving licence to the enforcement authorities can be now done in electronic form also,” stated the amended rule 139.

“The citizens are now not required to carry documents in physical form while driving. Although under the IT Act, the document in electronic form was prescribed, enforcement authorities had still been pressing for physical documents. This practice will be done away with,” the official said.

The amendments also dictate that the renewal of fitness certificates for transport vehicles up to eight years old should be done biannually while vehicles older than eight years have a renewal period of one year.

“Further, no fitness certification shall be required at the time of registration for new transport vehicle sold as a fully built vehicle, and such vehicle shall be deemed to be having a certificate of fitness for two years from the date of registration,” the draft notification stated.

The measures are expected to ease the transport sector of the regulatory requirements while helping keep corruption in check and increase the efficiency of the sector. Goods carriage vehicles will not be allowed to carry cargo openly and will be required to carry the goods only after covering them after an amendment pertaining to rule 138B.

“This (carrying goods openly) was a cause of nuisance when vehicles, laden with construction material, and garbage etc. were moving without covers. The amendment will solve this problem,” a ministry official said.