ARTO Baramulla earns praise for starting on-road driving test in Sopore

Baramulla: The on-road driving test started by the Assistant Road Transport Officer (ARTO), Baramulla, Mubashir Jan is transforming the mechanism of issuing driving licenses to the aspirants.

In the past, the off-road driving test was the general mechanism for issuing driving licenses and the driving license applicants were asked to pass a few poles erected in a zigzag manner in an open field.

   

Most of the candidates despite their good driving skill saw such a mechanism an “obsolete” approach that deprived a candidate of the license merely for knocking down a pole.

However, the new approach of on-road driving tests is seen as a massive reform in issuing driving licenses to the aspirants.

“On-road driving test is the most practical way of obtaining driving licenses. A driving license aspirant’s driving skills like controlling a vehicle during uphill and downhill drive can be easily judged this way. Besides, it will determine the alertness of the driver,” said Farooq Ahmad, a driving license aspirant.

Javed Ahmad, one of the driving license aspirants sharing his experience said that in the past, the driving test was conducted at Sopore asking the driving license aspirants to cross the zigzag erected poles to-and-fro.

“I failed in that test as my vehicle hit one of the poles. Rejecting my driving skill just because my vehicle hit a single pole does not make me unfit for having a driving license. In the on-road driving test, I showed all my driving skills which are practical and pragmatic and I got a driving license. The ARTO Baramulla needs to be appreciated for starting a practical approach to obtaining a driving license,” he said.

After completing several on-road driving tests, the Department of Transport, Sopore, under the leadership of ARTO Mubashir Jan, recently completed the on-road driving tests of scores of driving license aspirants.

The track chosen for the on-road driving test was Sopore to Gugaldoora Tangmarg.

The Gugaldoora track is hilly and most-fascinating.

The driving license aspirants while showing their driving skills also carried a message of “Stay live, don’t drink and drive” and ‘Driving without a seatbelt, undue halting on road, over speeding and undue honking will qualify for a Challan”.

The ARTO Baramulla, Sopore, Mubashir Jan termed the on-road driving test a more pragmatic way of obtaining driving licenses and said that such an approach would continue in the future too.

“Besides providing a practical solution to the issuance of driving license, the department has started ‘home challan’ wherein members of a team constituted by the Traffic department will click pictures of violators without hampering traffic movement. The violators will be later provided challan and, in some cases, the vehicles will be blacklisted,” he said.

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