KATHMANDU, JULY 23

The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) has proposed classification in the licences that are issued for private vehicles and public transport service vehicles. It has made a proposal of issuing different driving licences for those driving private vehicles and service-seekers driving public vehicles.

The DoTM has sought the aforementioned proposal to be incorporated in the Federal Vehicle and Transport Act. It has already prepared a draft of the act and forwarded it to the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport.

Gogan Bahadur Hamal, director general of the department, said that the department has included a provision of issuing ‘professional’ driving licences to public vehicle drivers and ‘non-professional’ driving licences to drivers of private vehicles in the draft of the act.

According to him, if the proposal is endorsed then drivers with non-professional licences will not be allowed to drive public service vehicles. At present, there is a similar standard for the same type of licence to operate private and public vehicles.

Hamal mentioned that only four to five people travel in private vehicles on average as such vehicles are most often utilised to carry family and friends.

“However, in public service vehicles there are a lot of passengers and a slight mistake puts a large number of people at risk,” he said, adding that any person receiving a professional licence is responsible for many more lives.

A study conducted by the DoTM has found that about 80 per cent of accidents are caused due to the human error of drivers.

The remaining 20 per cent is due to mechanical faults, road condition and careless pedestrians, among other faults.

The current legal provision to make drivers responsible is comparatively pathetic. Many lives are lost every year due to irresponsible drivers. For the same reason, the department has stated that new arrangements are being made to make the drivers of public transport more responsible.

Studies have also shown that many drivers have not been able to take responsibility for their work due to obtaining a licence to operate public transport at an early age.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on July 24, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.