Scores of ultra luxury foreign made cars like BMW, Audi, Mercedez, Rolls Royce and Jaguar being used for commercial use by the elite taxi tourist services are not being allowed to ply on the roads of the national Capital by the Transport department of the Delhi Government as these vehicles are missing the important transport condition of having ‘Speed Governors’.
Facing huge losses, the representatives of the Taxi Tourist Associations recently met the Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot and submitted a memorandum seeking exemption of speed governors for such vehicles ( models) for which the device is not available in the market and to allow them to undergo for the fitness test without the speed governors.
Following the Supreme Court order, the Central Government has drafted a policy mandating the fitment of ‘Speed Governors’ compulsory for certain category of transport vehicles with maximum speed 80 kmph and for transport vehicles like dumpers, tankers, school buses, those carrying hazardous goods with maximum speed of 60 kmph. The policy was implemented from 1st April 2018 and it was made compulsory in Delhi from 16th February 2019.
“Earlier, such cars were given exemption for a period of three months in Delhi but it has made compulsory this February because of which 32-33 numbers of taxi model in my services is stating still in the garage as speed governors for these vehicles are not available in the market. It is becoming a major loss for all the taxi services who has put such expensive cars into taxi and tourist services. We met the minister and submitted much representation requesting exemption from fitment of speed governors but nothing concrete has come out yet,” said Sanjay Samrat, President of Delhi Taxi, Tourist Transporters and Tour Operators Association.
However, as per the sources, the government is actively considering memorandums submitted by the associations and is planning to exempt the mandatory guidelines for the foreign made luxury vehicles.
As per the motor vehicle policy, any commercial vehicles playing on the roads must have fitness certificate issued from the STA and if it will not that it cannot run into services as well as will be issued challan of Rs 5000 by the enforcement team and traffic police.
Transport officials from STA and Road Transport Office (RTO) also said that many people and owners of such vehicles are coming with the problem of speed governors as the device is not available for these vehicles because of which high end cars and SUVs are facing problem in getting the fitness certificate. Moreover, late fitness fees are also being imposed on these vehicles forRs default.
As per the taxi association, about 10000 such foreign manufactured cars are lying idle in Delhi because of not having mandatory fitness certificate from the STA.
