Himachal Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri on Thursday called on Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari at his residence in Delhi and raised several pressing transport-related issues concerning Himachal Pradesh.
During the meeting, Agnihotri apprised the Union minister of the longstanding demand of contract-carriage vehicle operators of the state for enhancement of the permissible age limit of such vehicles
With the age cap already extended for vehicles under the All India Tourist Permit (AITP) scheme, Agnihotri urged that similar relief be extended to contract-carriage vehicles as well, without compromising road safety.
Additionally, in a major relief to the state’s taxi operators and the tourism sector, a decision was taken to increase the validity period of taxis operating within the state under tourist permits from 12 years to 15 years.
The Union minister directed that the requisite notification in this regard be issued.
Agnihotri also flagged the issue of inadequate automated testing station (ATS) infrastructure in the hill state, where only two ATS centres are presently functional.
He requested that the manual fitness testing system be allowed to continue in parallel until adequate ATS coverage is achieved across Himachal Pradesh, to avoid hardship to transport operators.
Gadkari assured that the request of the state government would be considered sympathetically and sought an undertaking status of the ATS under construction from the state government.
Further, on the request of Agnihotri, necessary instructions were issued regarding the request to connect the Amritsar-Hoshiarpur national highway to the highway network from Pandoga (on the Punjab-Himachal border) to Jhalera in Una.
The Deputy chief minister thanked Gadkari for his positive response and expressed hope that the pending issues would be resolved at the earliest, providing much-needed relief to the transport sector of the state.
