No need to empanel speed governor vendors, state told

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, February 24

With various transport unions opposing the move of the state government to empanel manufacturers of speed limiting devices (SLDs), the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has finally issued directions to the state government to desist from this move.

In a letter issued by the ministry’s Joint Secretary, a copy of which was available with The Tribune, the ministry has stated that there was no requirement of empanelling or registering and selecting such vendors by the state government for the fitment of SLDs in privately owned vehicles. The sole requirement is that such devices should be type approved by the authorised testing agency as per the laid norms. The ministry has also furnished such authorised testing agencies for this purpose.

The ministry opined that any such move would restrict competition and may lead to higher pricing and it would, therefore, hurt the interest of the consumer and raise legitimate concerns of unfair practises. The state government had, however, been given the liberty to impose eligibility and price criteria while selecting such vendors for fitment on the vehicles owned by various state government agencies.

The state government had earlier mooted a move to empanel such firms and applications from speed governor manufacturers had been invited. Manufacturers were supposed to be empanelled for a term of five years.

Various transport associations had been opposing this move tooth and nail as they felt it would force them to purchase SLDs from select firms at higher costs. The Centre had initiated this move in a bid to curtail the rate of accidents as over-speeding was found to have caused maximum accidents.

Naresh Gupta, general secretary, Himachal Truck Operators Federation, which had about 40,000 trucks under its umbrella, said an experiment to empanel such firms in the neighbouring Punjab had backfired. He added that vehicle owners first got costly SLDs worth Rs 15,000 fitted through the empanelled vendors in Punjab and later such equipment were available at less than half the cost in the market.

He said the recent directions of the ministry had provided relief to the transporters from being fleeced.

He added that the age of the vehicle should also be linked with SLDs and owners of old vehicles, which were 10 to 15 years old, should be given adequate time to dispose of the old vehicles. Since the state government was already late in implementing this direction, a notification for old vehicles should be issued at the earliest so that such transporters had sufficient time to change their old vehicles.