The Central Government has issued a gazette notification making the use of speed governor for transport and vehicles mandatory. The execution of the same has raised doubts over the safety of the occupants of the vehicle and also the vehicular traffic on the road. Vehicle coming for passing at the registration wing of the RTO are being issued a memo and sent back for fitment of speed governor. Sadly the RTO has no certified retailers or distributors for the same leaving many transport vehicles plying on the road without the speed control device and without renewing the fitness certificate.
In another notification the Centre had relaxed and exempted the same till October 31, 2016. The deadline for objections and suggestions and also the compliance has gone passed the state Road Transport Authorities, and as expected the enforcement is still grappling with the complete coverage of the mandate to all the transport vehicles. Within the end of deadline and the complete compliance lies a frightful reality of many vehicles on the road plying without the speed governor.
The Road Transport Office of Margao handles 15 vehicles daily on an average for issuance of fitness certificates. Vasco, Quepem and other RTO offices also do an average of 10 to 12 vehicles daily. These vehicles are mostly heavy carriage trucks and public transport buses. The RTO has, from November 1, started issuing memo to the trucks, buses, tankers and other vehicles ordering them to fit the speed governor and then come back for the fitness certificate. Sources have informed that only one or 2 vehicles among the 15 odd vehicles are with speed governor and rest are being sent back for compliance.
Mahesh Damodar Nayak of the Jai Damodar Association has said that there is no provision in law to send the vehicles back on road without fitness certificate and further said, “This act of the RTO is contrary to law and is dangerous to the other traffic on roads. In an untoward eventuality of an accident the people will be in trouble as there is no fitness certificate nor a speed governor for the vehicle,” said Mahesh.
The Directorate of Transport, having sub offices in entire Goa, is the authority which will have to execute the Gazette Notification of the Centre making the speed Governor mandatory for transport vehicles. Sources say that the authority has rejected all the vehicles which came to renew the fitness certificates for want of Speed governors.
Many of the owners of vehicles are ready to fit speed governors. However, the RTO has not appointed any Speed Governors fitters or any retailer who will provide the device and offer fitment services. As a result of the same there have been several garages, some registered and many not advertising on social media of fitting of speed governor. “Speed governor and its calibration being a critical job in case of safety of people on roads, the RTO is expected to appoint an authorised agency to fix speed governors which is not happening,” said Mahesh Naik.
The Director of Transport, Sunil Masurkar, replying to this said, “The purchaser of the speed governor can buy from any dealer and there are no appointed dealers. There is a file put up for the same with the Government on empanelment of retailers and fitters of speed governors and we are awaiting reply on the same,” said Sunil. To the question on who assures the quality of the product and the technical specifications of fitment of the speed governor, he said “The buyer is the customer and the user of the product and it is expected that he makes the right choice,” he said.
“We cannot check all the vehicles at a time as it is not practically possible,” Masurkar said.
Meanwhile the North and South Goa truckers have said that they will be challenging the mandate of fitting speed governor in their trucks as they have claimed that GPS system fitted in the vehicles already mandates them to 40 kmph speed and speed governor then becomes useless.
However, the fact that several transport vehicles are now plying without speed governor and moreover a proper fitness certificate on Goan roads has become a dangerous trend for commuters on the roads.
