Vehicles older than 15 years may require fitness certification every 6 months

The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) has recently issued a draft notification for amendments to the Central Motor Vehicles Rules that aims to promote adoption of electric vehicles, ensure disabled-friendly features in buses, and provide an enabling mechanism for scrapping of vehicles older than 15 years.

The ministry has proposed that transport vehicles older than 15 years will need to renew the certificate of fitness every six months, from the existing requirement of once a year. In addition, the charges have been increased for conducting a fitness test, and for the granting and renewal of the certificate of fitness for vehicles older than 15 years. To make buses disabled- and wheelchair-friendly, priority seats, signs, securing of crutches/ canes/ walkers, hand rail/ stanchions, controls at priority seats and wheelchair entry/ housing/ locking arrangement is to be checked and ensured at the time of the fitness inspection.

The government aims to push adoption of electric vehicles and has exempted them from payment of fees for the issue or renewal of registration certificate and assignment of new registration mark.

New vehicles will be exempted from the fees for the registration certificate and assignment of new registration mark, if the vehicle is presented for the registration along with the 'Scrapping Certificate' of the previously owned vehicle of same category issued by the authorised scrapping centre/agency and the scrapping certificate has not been utilised for any other such cases in past. The fees have been revised for renewal of certificates of registration and assignment of new registration mark.