The Transport Department is trying to make governance citizen-friendly and cost-effective by increasingly relying on online services to bring accountability and transparency into the system. The basic idea of Smart Cities is to smartly utilise the available resources to sustain every function of urban livelihood, says B Dayananda, Commissioner for Transport and Road Safety, Department of Transport, Government of Karnataka, in conversation with Ritika Srivastava of Elets News Network (ENN).
Q: What is the mandate of Karnataka’s Transport Department Karnataka?
The Transport Department is trying to make governance citizen-friendly and cost-effective. We are increasingly relying on online services to bring accountability and transparency into the system. Mobile apps for transport services are getting popular day-by-day. We have also formed e-groups through which we get feedback from citizens. We are also monitoring developmental programmes and activities with the aid of cyber tour of worksites.
We aim to make the mobility smarter as well as safer. Hence, we are increasing the use of technology based monitoring, enforcement and inspection of vehicles to ensure safer and cleaner vehicles, creating safe licensed drivers using technologybased transparent and effective training and evaluation of driving license applicants.
We are developing digital database and online facilities for regulating and issuing permits to commercial vehicles under the ambit of Transport Department.
Q: How is Karnataka adopting ICT for transforming transport sector?
The Transport Department, as a first step towards implementation of ICT, took up computerisation of records of all the vehicles and driving licenses in 2009. A Smart Card project under the caption ‘Computerised Service Delivery System’ which has been at transport offices in Karnataka’ was started in February, 2009. The project was implemented under the Public Private Partnership model. The project has so far covered all 61 Regional Transport Offices (RTOs), 15 checkposts and nine supervisory offices.
Till June, 2017, about 1.05 crore smart card Driving Licences (DLs) and 1.40 crore smart card Registration Certificates (RC) were issued across the State.
- Karnataka State Wide Area Network (KSWAN): KSWAN has been provided by the e-Governance Department to all the RTOs of the State. Using KSWAN, data transfer to State Register and National Register of DL and RC and other agencies has been undertaken.
- Online Application Services: The department has introduced online application services to issue learners license, driving license and register vehicles at all the RTOs in the State from October, 2013.
- e-Payment System: e-Payment system has been implemented and integrated with Khajane-2 system of the State’s Treasury Department of the State. As on 10th August, 2017, a sum of Rs127.12 crores has been collected from 4,89,522 vehicles’ registration. Online collection of driving license fee has also been introduced through Sarathi-4 application.
- Services thorough Citizen Service Centres: Two services, namely, issuance of Vehicle RC extract and issue of driving licence extract are being rendered through the citizen service centres of Bangalore-one (B-1) and Karnataka-one (K-1) centres since December, 2012. A citizen can visit the nearest B1 or K1 centre and obtain the DL/RC extract by paying the prescribed fee of Rs 18 for each of the documents.
- Services thorough Mobile App: The selected services of the Department are being rendered through a mobile app, integrated with Karnataka-Mobile one project of the e-Governance Department. They can easily obtain RC or DL extract in the form of PDF by making online payment through the app. As on 31st March, 2017, a total of 1,08,114 RC extracts and 8,943 DL extracts have been issued through the app. The Mobile app can be downloaded by giving a missed call to 1800 425 425 425.
Q: In the era of Smart Cities, how sustainable and effective ‘Transport Mobility’ can play an important role to change the urban landscape?
The basic idea of Smart Cities is to smartly utilise available resources to sustain every function of urban livelihood while ensuring least externalities and maintaining resources for future generations as well. In that sense, sustainability becomes the core requirement for a city to become smart. Achieving this can have permanent impact on increased liveability of Smart Cities. Better land use and transport integration will help contain urban sprawl and reduce travel distances.
Q: What are the challenges of building an effective and tech-driven urban transport mechanism?
One of the major challenges is the fragmented governance structure of the urban transport system where multiple agencies work with overlapping roles. Also, there is more top down decision making in the urban transport systemk as opposed to bottom up.
We often see lack of customisation and research based development of technical solutions for urban transport in India, where traffic and driving behaviour are fundamentally different than those observed in rich economies.
Q: What initiatives are being planned by the Karnataka Transport Department?
- Implementation of Vahan-4: It is a centralised and web-based application developed by the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways, and is related to vehicle registration services. Customisation of Department’s requirements is in final stages. Pilot-run in one RTO and one senior RTO is also under progress.
- e-Challan System: The Department has initiated implementation of e-Challan, a web-based application/mobile based app developed by NIC, Delhi. This app helps in carrying out effective enforcement activities.
- E-Permits for Autorickshaws: It is being proposed to issue e-permits for autorickshaws in Bengaluru. The e-permit will be issued in a secured paper along with a QR code, Aadhaar authentication and other security features.
- GPS: The Department has proposed for GPS fitment to all the stage carriages, school buses and taxis in the State. The GPS devises will also be enabled with GPRS connectivity via which all these vehicles’ categories can be tracked in real time, ensuring safety and achieving better enforcement of various type of violations.
- Fitment of Speed Governor to Transport Vehicles: Being implemented since 2015, integration of details of fitment of speed governor with Vahan Software is taken up. The pilot implementation has been commenced at RTO, Yelahanka, (KA-50).
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Ritika Srivastava
Quelle/Source: eGov Magazine, 09.09.2017