National permit vehicles can now ply without two drivers: Govt

The national permit vehicles can now ply without two drivers, the government said Saturday.

Besides, there is also no requirement of having dark brown body colour for such vehicles, as was mandatory earlier with amendment in Central Motor Vehicles Rules.

"The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has made amendments to CMVR 1989. For national permit vehicles the requirements of having a dark brown body color and having two drivers have been done away with," the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in a statement.

It said the words "National Permit or N/P" should be inscribed in the front and rear of the vehicles in bold letters, and added that in case of trailers, the letters "N/P" will be inscribed on the rear and left side of the vehicle.

"The body of a tanker carrying dangerous or hazardous goods shall be painted in white colour and shall display the class label. It has to be fitted with FASTag. Vehicle shall be affixed with reflective tapes at front and rear. 

Vehicle will also be fitted with a vehicle tracking system device. It will not pick up or set down goods between two points in the same state, if restricted by the particular state, the statement said.

The government said the renewal of fitness in respect of transport vehicles will now be every two years for vehicles up to eight years old, and one year for vehicles older than eight years.

The renewal of fitness was required every year earlier.

"Further that no fitness certification shall be required at the time of registration for new transport vehicle sold as fully built vehicle and such vehicle shall be deemed to be having certificate of fitness for a period of two years...," the statement said.

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These measures will ease the transport sector of the regulatory requirements and would help to reduce corruption and increase efficiency of the sector, it said.

Under rule 138B, now the goods carriage vehicles can not carry goods openly. They can carry in closed body or within covers like tarpaulin etc.

This was a cause of nuisance when vehicles carrying say construction material, garbage etc were moving without covers.

"The production of documents like registration, insurance, fitness, permit, driving licence etc to the enforcement authorities on their asking can now under the CMVR be in Electronic Form also, under rule 139," the statement said.

This will be very beneficial for a common citizens at this age of mobiles and IT, it added.

The citizens are now not required to carry documents in physical form while driving. Although under the IT Act 2000 the document in electronics form was prescribed but enforcement authorities were still pressing for physical documents as per CMVR.

All India Motor Transport Congress has hailed the move.