Last week the Motor Vehicle Amendment Bill 2019 was cleared by Lok Sabha and has been passed by the Rajya Sabha too.

The new bill mainly aims at improving road safety, impose hefty fines for violation of traffic rules and reducing corruption in different transport departments. The Bill was cleared in the Rajya Sabha with 108 votes supporting it and 13 opposing it.  

But with two new amendments, the Bill again has to go to Lok Sabha.  It was made in consultation with transport ministers from 18 states along with a discussion with other standing committees.

Minister of Road Transport & Highways and MSME, Nitin Gadkari assured that the new bill in addition to improving road safety would also, facilitate citizens in their dealings with transport departments, strengthen rural transport, public transport, and last-mile connectivity through automation, computerisation and online services. One of the major components of the Motor Vehicle Amendment Bill looks to increase traffic fines significantly. 

The fine for not wearing a helmet will go up from ₹ 100 currently to ₹ 1,000. The fine for talking on mobile phone and driving will be raised to ₹ 5,000 from the current ₹ 500. And the fine for drinking and driving has been increased from ₹ 2,000 to ₹ 10,000. 

To determine the road worthiness of a vehicle, the new Motor Vehicle Amendment Bill also speaks about automated fitness tests for vehicles. The testing agencies that issue approvals will be prescribed standards for approval of vehicles.

According to the new bill, the Central Government has the right to recall any type of vehicles in case of a defect which could cause harm to the user, environment or other road users. The manufacturer of the defective vehicle would be liable to reimburse the full cost. or replace the vehicle with a new vehicle of the same standard or above.

A National Road Safety Board would be created through a notification advise central and state governments on road safety, traffic management, licensing and even promoting vehicle technology.

The bill includes guidelines to prevent harassment to good Samaritans and provide cashless treatment of road accident victims during the golden hours. 

The insurance compensation claim process would be simplified and the rate would be increased from 50,000 to 5 lakhs. The insurance claims process would be cleared within a month.

A Motor Vehicle Accident Fund would be created which will provide compulsory insurance cover to all road users in India. In order to improve services to all stakeholders, the major outlook of the bill is e-governance.

This includes provisions for issuing online learners driving licenses with mandatory identity verification, driving tests will be computerised.

Commercial driving licenses will now be valid for 5 years instead of the earlier 3 years, opening more driver training facilities for commercial drivers along with vehicle fitness centers. Differently-abled people or ‘Divyang’ will be able to get licenses quicker and the related bottlenecks will be removed too.

The registration process for new vehicles will be made easier. To make the process uniform across the country, vehicle registration would be done on two different platforms which are ‘Vahan’ and ‘Sarathi.