Covers three more provinces:

Vehicle emission tests compulsory

Shirajiv SIRIMANE

The Commissioner of Motor Traffic has decided to make compulsory the vehicle emission test to three other provinces, in addition to the Western province.

The emission tests are now being made compulsory to all vehicles that need registration (revenue licence) with the Register of Motor Vehicles. (RMV) “We have also decided to extend this to North Western, Southern and Central provinces from next month,” Commissioner General of Motor Traffic, Bandula Wijayaratne said.

Speaking to the `Sunday Observer’ after the launch of the new driving licence, `Smart Card’ he said that they have already informed the two private organisations to expand their services to the three provinces as well.

He also said that there have been several malpractices that were reported when issuing vehicle emission certificates and steps are being taken to check this.Commenting on the new `Smart Card’ he said that it was launched with Metropolitan communications on a seven-year Build Own and Operate (BOT) agreement. The total investment for the project is Rs. 2 billion and Rs. 300 million had been already invested.

This investment includes providing machinery, installation, software, other logistics and also the supply Smart Card reading machines to the Police. A unique feature of the Smart Card, which came to effect from last Friday, is the inbuilt Chip, which provides all information about the owner, fingerprint, summary of traffic offences if any and special measures to stop counterfeit.

The Department of Motor Traffic has also decided for the first time to allow issuing driving licence to those using Automatic transmission vehicles.However, drivers who have licence to drive ‘Auto’ vehicles would not be certified to drive manual vehicles.

It was also decided to reduce the minimum eligible height of issuing a licence to 4.6 meters mainly due to numerous requests made by the fairer sex.

In addition riders using Mopeds (less than 49cc) too would have to get a licence.“This is because we have noted an increase in the number of accidents by riders on Mopeds,” he said.He also emphasized that those who have driving licences do not have to apply for the new licenses right now.

“This is pending a future decision by the Government.” The Smart Card, which has the international ISO 18013 certification would be issued from the RMV office in Werahera that had been refurbished at a cost of Rs. 120 million. “Steps are being taken to provide car insurance, Medical and all other facilities under one roof at Werahera,” he added.

Steps have been taken to offer online driving licence to regional officers and to automate the RMV at Narahenpita.

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Facts box

**Total number of vehicles in Sri Lanka: Over 2.2 million

**Average accidents per day: 150

**Deaths from accidents: 5 or 6

**1987 to 2007 total accidents: 120,848

**Deaths resulting from it: 40,000 injuries 320,000

**Number of vehicles damaged during the period:Over 10,000

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