The transport department is an organisation that takes care of the public transportation system.It monitors vehicle pollution, issues driving licenses.The organisation also issues permits at the checkpoints, collects road taxes, and more. The ministry of road transport and highways also assigns transport policies, coordination, implementation, monitoring and regulatory functions of all transport departments.

Good coordination and a well-organized system play an important role in the steady growth of the country.

Year after year the transport department of India is spreading its network in all over India. The RTOs provide the best quality delivery service to the citizen and good environmental facilities.

Several modes of transport such as rail, metro-rail, waterways, airways, road transports the department is maintaining very well. The wide variations in state policies with a manual system based procedures are being followed across the country, it has become the basic need to define standards for the documents on Pan-India level to ensure the information widely.

ACOSTA agency was proposed to set up to uniform the standard of the software used in this purpose in all over the country.

The transport department then assigned the National Informatics Center (NIC) with two regulating and arranging software like VAHAN for vehicle registration and SARATHI for driving licenses. The applications VAHAN and SARATHI were theorized to capture the functions as commanded by the Central Motor Vehicle Act, 1988.

The Objective of the Transport Department

The improvement of state and interstate transportation is quite noticeable. The time management, frequent service with quality are really appreciable. The department has some objectives to improve their different services in the future.

1. Rapid implementation of government policies.

2. Better services to transport department

3. Quick operation of government & department

4. Instant permission of vehicle-related issues to other states, interstate or international government departments

The stability of achievements of its vision, mission, and objectives, the ministry is developing and establishing the firm ground of improved service to citizens.

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is the head organisation for origination and management of the rules, procedures, and laws related to road transport and its research. The department helps to increase the motion and proficiency of the road transport system in India. The officers of Central Engineering Services are liable for the development of the National Highways of the country. Road transport is a serious frame for the economic development of the country. It guidance the pace, structure, and pattern of development. In India, roads are used to transport most of the total goods and passengers within state or interstate. So, the development and maintenance of roads is a principal significant factor for India.

The main responsibilities of the ministry of the transport department

1. Planning, progress, and repairs of National Highways

2.  Permitting of work related to construction, maintenance, and operation of National Highways.

3. Standardize the buildings and maintenance of roads and bridges.

4. Spreads mechanical and monetary support to the state government for developing state roads and inter-state connectivity and national importance.

5.  Improve and introduce new technical knowledge generated through projects.

6. Passing the estimates for various centrally funded schemes including Central Road Fund, Roads of Interstate Connectivity.

7. Dealing the matters related to road safety.

The transport wings of the transport department are responsible for certain matters related to road transport

1. Issued Motor Vehicle Regulation

2. Taxation of motor vehicles

3.  Essential insurance for vehicles

4.  Promotion of Transport companies in the field of motor transport.

5. Setting National road safety principles

6.  Accumulating data on road accidents and evolving a road safety culture among the people in the country

7. Providing grants to NGOs in agreement with guidelines.

The transport department has a wing of planning and monitoring roads and bridges

This wing is supervised by two separate Chief Engineers of Central Engineering Services (Roads).

Main accountabilities of this zone are

1. Prepare the budgets and distribute the funds to maintain the roads. Keep records of expenditure.

2. Documentation of sections that may form a possible network of National Highways.

3. Notification and de-notification of National Highways.

4. This wing also deals with the monitoring and reviewing the progress of ongoing NH works that share out by various effective agencies of NH development.

Some governmental transport department agents actively work with the Indian transport department to improve transportation in India.

National Highway Authority of India (NHAI)

It is an autonomous body of the Indian Government which set up in 1988. This agency is responsible for the management of a network of National Highways.

National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited

This agency is responsible to develop the highway and also maintain the damage conditions.

Indian Roads Construction Corporation

It is a public agency, incorporated in 1976. This agency is responsible to construct and maintain the road conditions of different cities and towns.

Indian Academy of Highway Engineers

This training institute was set up to address the training needed for highways and bridges. The institute arranged training programs for engineers and highway sector professionals of Central Government, state government, stakeholders like World Bank, Asian Development Bank, etc. 

Transport Departments Check Post and Borders

The transport department has several major duties to do in the border check post. This is one of the most important factors for security reasons also. On-duty Assistant Transport commissioner and Additional Regional Transport Officers give instructions to their subordinate officers to follow the guidelines.

Steps should be taken for vehicles at the check reports

•  Assistant Transport commissioner and Additional Regional Transport Officers should clear out the pending vehicle cases which become stagnant for M.V Laws.

• The officers should give permission to the suspended registration to the vehicles and deliver the proper route permission to the vehicles. The order of permission the officers should be sent to the other M.V check posts.

• The R.T.O officers should keep the proper daily record of vehicle offense. They should also keep the track of penalties of the vehicles.

Preparation of off-load list

The Assistant Transport commissioner and Additional Regional Transport Officers are responsible to prepare and maintain the off-load lists which cause fudging of M.V revenue. The lists should be circulated in all connected check posts.

Verification of the validity of permits

Large and small passenger carriages, goods vehicles, need permissions to cross-check posts. The on-duty officers should check the permission validity of the vehicles and keep track of the permit renewal.

Fixing issues in enforcement work

Every regional check posts have some enforcement issues. That need to be fixed to execute organized planning. The issues generally arise in the checkpoints are-

• Carry out vehicles without payment of M.V. Tax without permission or without a fitness certificate or without registration for traveling in the remote routes.

•  Stage Carriages carry out on the false excuse of plying under S.T.U. Banners.

•  Contract Carriage and vehicles with permits carry out as stage carriage in violation of the permit conditions.

• Small-wheel-based vehicles or delivery vans or private vehicles passenger transport on specific sections of the routes.

• Goods vehicles carrying over-load which don’t have the permission as per registered laden-weight.

• Stage carriage / Public carriage with drivers/ conductor’s license.

Transport Department Advantages

The transport department provides numerous advantages to the citizens to transport goods in  long and short distance in a different mode of transport.

Capital Expenditure

The works of the department are to help the citizen to carry goods with much less capital investment. The cost of building, functioning and maintaining is cheaper. The roads are usually constructed by the engineers and local authorities and a small tax is charged for the use of roads. To carry the goods in different transport ways are possible without investing a huge amount.

Service in Rural Areas

The transport department gives the most suitable option for carrying goods and people in rural areas. Several rural areas cannot avail railways, water or air transport. So the department has constructed many roads and bridges to connect the villages, small towns with big cities. Transport of goods and passengers, between large towns and small villages is an acute problem, and that can possibly be solved only through road transport.

Short Distance Services

Short distance services of transport department are very effective. Rail transports generally used for long-distance transportation. The road transport is more financial relief and faster for transporting goods and people in short distances. In remote areas, the roads are a more convenient option to reach destinations.

Cost of Transportation

Besides the less initial introduction cost, the cost of set-up and looking after the products are also comparatively less. The actual effective cost of transporting goods by road transport is less.

Private Owned Vehicles

Another benefit given by the transport department is the allowance of using own transport vehicles on roads and waterways. Big businessmen can manage to pay for the transport if they have their own vehicles. Initially, they can carry out their own goods without any liability to grow the market of their products without instigating any delay.

Door to Door Service

The excellent advantage of connecting villages and towns with big cities via roads and bridges is that it can provide door to door or warehouse to warehouse service in all places. It reduces the time to pick up from stations and delivered to the warehouses. This also reduces cartage, packing expenses.

Flexible Service

Every model of transportation has different flexibility. The department has a benefit over other modes of transport for its ductile service, its routes and timings can be organized and changed as per individual requirements without creating any problem. The permission and checking process in the several checkpoints helps to transport the goods without delay.

Delivery Speed in a Different Mode of Transportations

The immediate and quick motor service is more convenient than the railways or water transport. The process of releasing goods is quite longer in those modes. Also, it is much time taken for booking and delivery of the goods in case of railway and water transport.

Risk of Damage in Transit

There is a lesser risk of destruction, breakage in rail transport of the goods. Thus, road transport is the most convenient for transporting subtle goods without damage.

Transport Department Disadvantages

The following are the disadvantages of transport departments need to solved soon. Development of a country quite depends on the different modes of transport services.

Frequent Accidents

Every mode of transport is dotted with frequent accidents. According to an estimation, there are a large number of deaths due to road accidents especially. Poor signals and poor visibility causes

more accidents and loss of products too. So availing any mode of transport is quite risky in different situations.

Inadequate Ways

Most of the roads conditions are in awful nature and are scary ways. People travel through those roads is very dangerous. The rail tracks also not maintained properly. The conditions of the connecting railway tracks are horrible in some places. This is too risky to travel with passengers and goods.

Heavy Taxes

There is a heavy tax burden on especially motor transport in India. This tax burden most of the times proved unreasonable and for this small business person can’t afford this mode of transportation.

Poor Maintenance of different transport ways

Roads are not maintained properly in India. Less than 0.1 percent of national income is spent on the maintenance of roads in India. The maintenance of waterways is needed in very few places to clean out the polymath from the river base. For railways, it’s very much essential to maintain the track or else accidents can happen any time. 

Rising Cost of Petrol and Diesel

This is the biggest drawback in the transport department. Due to the high prices of petrol and diesel, the operational costs of road transports mainly are rising and its effects on the hiking of product price in the market.

Public Transportation System Disadvantages

• The enviable features of public transportation systems are balanced by a number of serious drawbacks. In the first place, such systems are reasonably possible only in areas that have comparatively large populations. As the number of residents per square mile decreases, the competence of a mass transportation system also decreases.

• Public transportation systems are also very pricey to build and to operate. This is one of the major factors as the cities decide to have a mass transit system. Long after progress has already taken place and interruption of existing structures is a severe problem.

Since public transportation systems hardly ever receive government backing provided to highway construction, clients often have to pay a higher part of the costs of using public transportation.

• People criticize public transportation systems also because they can be crowded, uncomfortable, dirty, and defective. Again, with limited budgets, public transportation systems are rarely able to maintain apparatus and schedules to the extent that passengers can rightly require.

• Finally, public transportation systems are simply not as suitable as the car. A person can step into her or his car and drive nearly anywhere with a minimum of hassle. No public transportation system can come up to this level of comfort.

Transport Department and Corruption

• This is one of the burning issues the transport department need to deal with. Every day several complaints registered against different RTOs. this is a very shameful matter for the reputation of the transport department.

• The ministry also found common corruption in the issuance of fitness certificates for vehicles. It has been found that in a single day, some officials issued as many as a round of 200 fitness certificates, which vehicles are not at all fit for the service.

The government has taken action on this matter and trying to convert the whole process online so that all the data can be stored in high security.

• The authority has started to look into the performance of the department to have the information. Some of the officials are often accused of asking for bribes while issuing driving licenses, as well as registration and fitness certificates.

• The ministry also supervises the future reforms in the department, especially the ones that engage with public interactions. This initiative has taken to make the transport department’s services user-friendly and reliable.

• The transport department officers with the help of ministry create the investigation teams to work on it. They collect all the information and proofs of the corrupt RTOs.

They do the whole process in under coverage. This is the great initiative has been taken to sustain the morality and honesty in the economy of India.

Transport departments bad behaviors main reason driver shortage

The driver shortage is a big challenge for the transport department. Many acute reasons are there which interrupt the smooth service of the department. This is also one of the main reasons for the negative reputation of the department.

Transportation of passengers and goods by road is fully dependent on the skilled and motivated drivers. The reduction of a shortage of drivers is partly difficult to overcome the inconvenience. Some of the factors are common like other individual countries.

The coordination between the transport department and the drivers sometimes went bad because of the bad behaviors of the drivers. The problem highly affects the economy of the country. For the shortage of drivers the problem to be faced as follows-

1. It decreases the public transportation frequency

• People are not able to reach their destinations in proper time.

• Receiving and sending business orders to get interrupted.

• The goods service in long journeys become time taking.

• The costs of the products get high so that the products need to buy at high costs.

Transport Department Big Amount Fine Increase

The transport department collects a huge amount of fine from the drivers, vehicle owners. Sometimes it happens for the corrupt RTOs but that is a different issue. There are some rules and conditions applied to transport different types of goods within a state and interstate borders and checkpoints. Those regulations need to be followed or else the drivers or vehicle owners need to give fine. 

Many motors do not follow the rules and some don’t even know about the regulations. According to the Motor Vehicle Act, there are some strict rules need to be followed by the citizen are-

1. Using a helmet is mandatory for two-wheelers.

2. Traffic signal breaking penalty

3. Drink and drive penalty

4. Talking over the phone and driving penalty

5. Using black tint glasses in the cars are absolutely prohibited for the general public. It only allows for the minister.

6. Overloading passengers in two-wheelers, public transport, and goods vehicles penalty

7. Showing aggregations on traffic guards or other drivers should pay a penalty.

8. Driving without insurance of the vehicle penalty

9. Drivers should carry updated driver’s license

10.  Good carriages permission with proper papers required to cross interstate and state borders.

Citizens can get all the information on the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways on their official site. Users can get the details related to Road Transport, National Highways and Transport Research in the country. They also get the information on the road safety, National Highways conditions, status and positions of road transports, national permits in check posts and borders, NHDP maps, permanent property returns, etc. Details on the Ministry and its allied office’s acts, rules, notifications, vacancies, etc. are also available.

People can submit their opinions, by filling online forms, on the road safety particularly for the identification of accidental potholes and accident-prone area with Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

Citizens can get information about Metro Railways in the different official sites. Users can avail the details about the history of the Kolkata metro, fare chart, tickets and smart card, frequency of train services, automatic ticket collection, method of building, development plan, etc. Information about technical features, relevant feature, ongoing projects, tenders, notice, etc can easily take from there. Route map of Metro Railways of different cities is also available.

Developing of Urban areas is a great work of Indian government. The official site offers the programs related information to the citizen to give track of development. Urban Transport Policy helps to provide the public transportation system frequently in several remote areas. The road binding, expansion of roads helps the urban areas to grow for the better future.

FAQ Frequently Asked Questions About Transport Department India