Mumbai: The Maharashtra government today assured the Bombay High Court it had initiated a process at Regional Transport Offices (RTO) across the state to provide land to lay down road track for testing four-wheelers.
The government also assured a division bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka it would conduct a special drive to check vehicles for the purpose of issuing fitness certificate.
The government pleader informed the bench that process had been initiated to provide land for tracks at 35 RTOs.
Three more RTOs – Baramati, Osmanabad and Satara would get land for this purpose within two weeks, the court was informed. Hearing a PIL on the issue, the bench took on record the government’s statement and deferred the matter for further hearing on January 31.
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In August, the high court had warned the government to follow its earlier order of constructing 250-metre road track at all the RTOs in the state to test four-wheeler for issuance of fitness certificates or face contempt action. The court had asked the government to give an assurance it would construct the track at all the RTOs. The assurance was given today by the Maharashtra government.
Currently, few RTOs have road tracks and the test is conducted on public roads, which is very unsafe for the person
driving the vehicle as well as pedestrians, the PIL, filed by social activist Srikant Karve, alleged.