Nagpur:- All three regional transport offices (RTOs) have resumed Monday’s learner’s and permanent driving license tests after three months of lockdown. During the lockdown time the deputy RTO (East) and rural office had their new offices built. Now, from their new premises in Chikhli (in East Nagpur), and near Nagpur rural police headquarters in North Nagpur, both offices have begun functioning.
Maharashtra Regional Transport Office (RTO) has resumed vehicle registration and issuance of driving licences. On June 16, the commissioner for transport had issued a circular to resume operations across its 50 state offices. The city offices subsequently restored services including insurance, secondary insurance, car registration and Monday shift.
After the nationwide lockdown was announced in March this year, the department had temporarily shut down operations and resumed operations after nearly three months of inactivity. Visited the offices and found the departments, especially the city office, strictly following the guidelines of Covid-19.
Deputy RTO Atul Ade said the applicants have rescheduled the office ‘s earlier slot bookings. We have told all the applicants via SMS, he said. The three departments have set the quotas for each position according to the number of available officers and employees.
Candidates without masks and hand gloves were not permitted to appear for the student license examinations, although officials of the transport department ensured that the vehicle was sanitized before the examination for the PDL exam.
The three offices focused primarily on the student licensing exam to ensure coronavirus non-spreading. In addition to reducing the LL test limits, the department has also modified the seating arrangements and held at least one or two seats between two candidates vacant.
While the RTOs have reduced the test limits, there was poor visitor turnout. The Department issued 20 driving license renewal applications at the city hall, 37 appeared for LL testing, while eight appeared for permanent driving testing. The low turnout at the deputy RTO East office was also observed as it performed LL and DL checks for 55 and 15 applicants, respectively. Deputy RTO Vinod Jadhav said the office also handled 80 different works related to non-transport, vehicle transportation and 35 license renewal.
ARTO Sneha Medhe from rural office said that only 7 and 65 applicants appeared for the tests against appointments of 11 and 109 slots for LL and PDL, respectively. The office will deploy new slots of 60 for LL and 80 for DL from Thursday onwards, the ARTO said.
Checking Times
- Thermal pistols to screen people into offices
- Hand sanitizer service outdoors LL test rooms and office entrance
- Assistant inspectors for motor vehicles to ensure distance to Covid is followed
- Reduction of LL- and PDL-test quotas
