West Bengal government to form automated inspection and certification centres

West Bengal government has decided to set up automated inspection and certification centres (AICC) in every district of the state. These AICCs are claimed to test the fitness of the vehicles in a more efficient manner than manual fitness checking. The state government has already asked the district magistrates for the same.

The state government aims to start these automated inspection and certification centres by 2023. Initially, the large vehicles will be inspected, while inspection of small vehicles is expected to commence from 2024.

The state transport department has already set up one automated inspection and certification centre in south Kolkata. However, this centre is yet to start operating and inspecting vehicles. The transport department claims that it would start operations soon.

Currently, motor vehicle inspectors perform the inspection of vehicles for technical faults. However, such manual inspections tend to overlook some faults, which would be detected by the automated inspection process.

If a vehicle is detected with technical issues, the particular vehicle will not be given a fitness certificate. Those vehicles will be issued fitness certificates only after fixing the technical faults.

The automated inspection and certification centres will be based on large grounds with the capacity to park a large number of vehicles. These centres will inspect all kinds of vehicles across different categories. These will be equipped with computer-aided instruments for automated inspection to perform fitness tests of vehicles. The project is currently at the beginning phase.

The transport department of the West Bengal government is aiming to expedite the infrastructure development process. Till then the government will continue to inspect the vehicles and issue fitness certificates through the existing manual process.