NOIDA: In a decision which will affect over 60,000 vehicles registered in the four districts of NCR region , the regional transport authority (RTA) has decided to increase the age of commercial CNG vehicles to 15 years and to expand the grace period for getting the permit renewal from six months to nine months in the first attempt.However, experts have warned about the decision pointing out to the fact that the maintenance of the CNG vehicles whether privately-owned or government-run is being affected very seriously.They have also pointed out to the need for greater maintenance of CNG vehicles pointing out to the recent cases of buses getting burnt and the threat to commuters' lives.Earlier, the age of the CNG buses was 12 years while that of CNG autos was 10 years. Similarly, the age of the CNG tempos was seven years. Accepting the long-pending demand of the CNG transport and auto unions, the RTA headed by the regional transport commissioner Prabhat Kumar has decided that the age of these vehicles in commercial category would be increased to 15 years.Moreover, the grace period for getting a permit renewal of the vehicle for the first time has been increased from six months to nine months. Earlier, the grace period was only six months. This has now been increased to three additional months, making the total grace period to nine months.However, from the second time onwards, the grace period for getting the permit renewal has been decreased from six months to three months."The decision has been taken in the RTA meeting held on Tuesday. A formal notification for it will be shortly issued," Mayank Jyoti, RTO, Ghaziabad said.The CNG bus and auto drivers have welcomed the decision even as experts have warned about the move.S.P. Singh, president of Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training (IFTRT), Delhi said that presently, the safety regime of the CNG buses is not very robust in Uttar Pradesh and it seems that people are waiting for a big disaster to occur with the CNG buses."While states like Haryana and Delhi have stricter compliance of safety rules, UP still has a long way to go when it comes to implementation of safety norms. Most of the times, the private CNG stations issuing fitness for a CNG vehicle merely do formality by granting fitness on paper. There is hardly any care taken about the maintenance of the bus and there is little regard towards how the vehicle is performing. Most buses do not undergo proper hydro-testing required every three years. With this decision, the government is required to think about the implementation of safety regime on ground too," he said.Both the Noida Transporters Association and the Noida auto union have welcomed the decision.On May 4, TOI had reported how over 200 school buses are running without a fitness certificate from the transport department in Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad according to data from the transport department.

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