Rawalpindi to have vehicle inspection centre

A state-of-the-art vehicle inspection and certification station (VICS) centre will be set up near Faizabad or on IJP Road for inspection of public service vehicles (PSVs).

According to a district administration spokesman, Rawalpindi Deputy Commissioner (DC) Rawalpindi Muhammad Ali has directed the authorities concerned to select a suitable place in these areas.

The DC had also asked the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) to allow Chingchi rickshaws to ply only on designated routes, which should be issued to them to avoid traffic congestion on city roads.

He ordered the officers of RTA and City Traffic Police to launch a crackdown against PSVs running without route permits and fitness certificates and take strict action in accordance with the law against the rule violators.

The spokesman added that since the VICS centre in Rawat was at a great distance for many citizens, the administration was going to set up another centre near Faizabad or on IJP road to facilitate them.

The authorities had also been instructed that the PSVs being run without fitness certificates and route permits should be heavily fined and also impounded for a period ranging from one week to a month in respective police stations.

The Punjab government has made it mandatory for commercial vehicles in passenger and freight sectors to pass fitness test of an ‘OPUS Inspection’, a Swedish firm which had started its operation here.

Buses, vans, cabs, trolleys and trucks were being issued VICS certificate after alignment inspection, brake inspection, visual inspection, vehicle suspension verification, headlight inspection, emission inspection and vehicle noise inspection, said the spokesman.

He further said that the modern inspection method was helpful in controlling road accidents. Public transport vehicles were not allowed to operate on roads without passing the seven inspections of international standard, which aims to ensure road safety and minimise the number of accidents.

He added that the enforcement staff of the transport department had been directed to ensure that every vehicle gets the VICS certificate.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2021.