Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala’s Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) will increase the number of daily driving tests, considering the long wait for licence applicants after the authorities reduced the number of tests and started enforcing the rules strictly. The decision was taken at a meeting of top MVD officials convened by Transport Minister K B Ganesh Kumar. Under the latest agreement, two MVD officers in Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) will conduct 100 tests in place of 80 a day.

Incidentally, the pass percentage in driving licence tests across the state fell sharply to 40-45 per cent from 95-100 per cent after the authorities introduced the reforms. Prior to the strict evaluation, 8,000-8,500 applicants appeared on a day for driving tests in 17 RTOs and 69 Joint RTOs across Kerala, and 6,500-7,000 of them earned driving licences. However, these numbers later fell sharply to 5,200 tests on a day and 2,300-2,500 persons clearing the hurdle

Currently, in RTOs, two MVD officers conduct 80 tests and officers of the Enforcement Wing of the department are deployed for additional duty to hold 40 tests to clear the backlog. Meanwhile, 40 tests take place at Joint RTOs in a day. As per the decision taken at the minister’s meeting, 40 more tests would be conducted at 30 Joint RT offices with a long list of pending applications.

As part of the reforms, MVD also reduced the number of learner’s tests. For instance, an office which conducted 40 driving tests a day allowed only the same number of applicants to take the learner’s test. Following the latest meeting convened by Ganesh Kumar, the number of learner’s tests will go up to 50 a day. Among the 50 applicants for a driving test, 25 would be appearing for the first time, 20 would be having a re-test and five would be applicants such as expatriates who require the licence urgently.

An applicant for a driving licence will have to wait for at least three months to receive a date for the driving test after clearing the learner’s test.

While implementing the reforms, MVD officers had inspected driving schools also and found that 40 of these institutions lacked a qualified instructor. Subsequently, these driving schools appointed fresh instructors. Similarly, show-cause notices were served on Motor Vehicle Inspectors (MVIs) who passed more than 85 percent of the applicants in the driving tests.