The Transport department is creating a network to automatically generate penalty challans for vehicle owners who fail to get their Pollution Under Control (PUC) test done once in six months.
At present, the department depends on random manual drives to check 1.6 crore vehicles in the state to know if they have renewed the PUC certificate.
To create a database, the department is building a network with 606 authorised emission testing centres across the state of which 300 are in Bengaluru. As per the plan, each centre will automatically update and send vehicle details to the Transport department soon after the emission test is done. The department will in turn use this data to generate penalty challans if the any specific vehicle fails to have a PUC within the next six months. The new system will fall in place in the next two months, said an official.
Transport Commissioner Ramegowda told Deccan Herald that the initiative will check pollution levels in the city. “In the existing system, penalty is imposed only when the owners are caught by the enforcement authority while checking vehicles,’’ he said.
A RTO official said, it was noticed during their regular checks in the city that many vehicle owners do not bother to renew their PUC certificate.