‘Green sticker’ on Vehicles Mandatory From Mid-April

According to The Department of Transport Management (DoTM), vehicles without ‘green sticker’ (vehicle worthiness indicator) will be prohibited to run on all metropolitan cities and sub-metropolis roads from mid-April, including inside the Kathmandu Valley, reports The Himalayan Times.

Why it matters:

• DoTM is planning to strictly impose the fitness provision for vehicles from mid-April, as a majority of vehicles running on domestic roads are refusing to undergo fitness checks, which has resulted in security and environmental threats.
• According to the existing legal provision, all private vehicles should undergo fitness checks once a year and public vehicles should undergo such checks once every six months.

The Details:

• Previously, Ministry of Population and Environment (MoPE) had urged DoTM to bring all vehicles under fitness checking system of the government as a majority of vehicles operating in the country had been found to be emitting harmful smoke exceeding the emission limits set by the government.
• However, previous inspections carried out by MoPE had found that even the vehicles termed ‘fit’ by the DoTM were exceeding the government set emission limits.
• Recently, DoTM has directed its staffers to properly inspect the road-worthiness of vehicles.

What they are saying:

• Rupnarayan Bhattarai, director general at DoTM, informed that vehicles not undergoing fitness checks and not obtaining green stickers after mid-April will be not be allowed to run on roads. Also, the government will moot action against owners of such vehicles.
• Bhattarai also informed that the department is also gearing up to develop at least 20 fitness centers in major cities across the country that will verify the road-worthiness of vehicles and also determine their emission levels.
• According to him, DoTM had been facing problems in cross-checking emissions from vehicles earlier due to the lack of enough machines. Bhattarai informed that a tender notice has been issued to procure 40 such machines, which should resolve the problem.