All petrol stations to set up PUC certification centres: Bihar govt

Patna: Bihar Road Transport Department has instructed all petrol stations and service centres of automobile companies to set up PUC certification centres, a senior official has said.

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This would help curb air pollution and benefit vehicle owners to get their pollution under control (PUC) certificate easily, Transport Secretary Sanjay Kumar Agarwal said on Sunday.

The department has issued a directive to all petrol pumps and service centres of automobile companies to comply with it, failing which notices will be issued to them seeking an explanation, Agarwal said.

The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was passed on July 31 in Parliament with provisions for heavier penalties for violations. The bill got the President's assent on August 9 and is applicable pan India from September 1.

As per the Act, persons causing noise and air pollution will have to pay Rs 10,000 as fine besides getting driving licence disqualified for three months. Earlier, the fine was Rs 1,000.

Mentioning that over 150 pollution testing centres will be set up in the state in the next six months, Agarwal said that instructions have been issued to set up at least one testing centre in every block.

There are over 2,500 petrol pump outlets of the three oil marketing companies- IOCL, BPCL and HPCL- in the state.

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"The move to set up such centres will also open employment opportunities for many people," he said.

Even a common man can set up a PUC centre for which he can log on to the department's website "transport.bih.nic.in" and get the requisite information by clicking on the link 'how to apply for PUC centre online, he said.

Setting up PUC centres at the service centres of automobile companies will provide twin facilities to vehicle owners under one roof -- getting their vehicles serviced besides getting a PUC certificate, the secretary said.

Arrangements have also been made to issue online PUC certificates from 269 PUC centres in the state, including 55 in Patna, he said.

The system of issuing online PUC certificates will help check the issuance of fake PUC certificates, the official said.

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