Exactly a week after a car mowed down six pavement dwellers in Mumbai, CNN-IBN exposes how shockingly easy it is to get a driving license in the city.
License to kill, that's what driver’s license should be called – they are easy to obtain and easier to misuse.
Thousands of untrained drivers are being allowed on Mumbai roads each day because of little, or often, no tests. And the culprits are driving schools in connivance with the Regional Transport Authority (RTA).
For an aspirant driver, a driving school might inspire confidence but the irony is that it is these schools that are behind the many road mishaps in Mumbai.
Crowded by eager youngsters hoping to get licenses with ease, driving schools are sending out hundreds of poorly trained drivers on roads every day.
Fifty per cent of the driving schools that CNN-IBN visited in the city were happy to forfeit the mandatory test. A case in particular was the popular Goodluck Driving School in Mumbai’s Charni Road.
Aditya Mehta: What if I don’t want to give a test?
Qadri (Goodluck Driving School): You have to just come. There is no test.
Aditya Mehta: Only sign?
Qadri (Goodluck Driving School): Yes.
Another driving school right outside the transport office, too, had no problems.
"It will happen for Rs 3,500. No need to give a test. Without test it will happen,” Chandan Driving School’s Apparao says.
One such benefactor of these schools is an 18-year-old student. “I joined a driving school and they told me that if I give a minimal fee I could escape giving the test. So, they called me to the RTO and made me sign. There was no test,” the student says.
While some schools do insist on a test, the test itself is a big farce.
“When we went there three others were taking the test along with us. I doubt the inspector even saw us because of the crowds present there,” a driver, Radhika Mehta says.
"No wonder there are so many accidents taking place because the officers in charge are not even checking whether the person is ready to be on the road or not," another driver, Kumudini says.
There were some shocking revelations at the RTO in Tardeo also - two tests were being conducted simultaneously. A cursory glance from an RTO official was all that an aspirant driver covering 50 metres in 30 seconds got and the person was deemed fit to face the monstrous Mumbai traffic.
"He told me to take a round. Nothing else. It's a joke," an aspirant driver says.
Source: IBN
License to kill, that's what driver’s license should be called – they are easy to obtain and easier to misuse.
Thousands of untrained drivers are being allowed on Mumbai roads each day because of little, or often, no tests. And the culprits are driving schools in connivance with the Regional Transport Authority (RTA).
For an aspirant driver, a driving school might inspire confidence but the irony is that it is these schools that are behind the many road mishaps in Mumbai.
Crowded by eager youngsters hoping to get licenses with ease, driving schools are sending out hundreds of poorly trained drivers on roads every day.
Fifty per cent of the driving schools that CNN-IBN visited in the city were happy to forfeit the mandatory test. A case in particular was the popular Goodluck Driving School in Mumbai’s Charni Road.
Aditya Mehta: What if I don’t want to give a test?
Qadri (Goodluck Driving School): You have to just come. There is no test.
Aditya Mehta: Only sign?
Qadri (Goodluck Driving School): Yes.
Another driving school right outside the transport office, too, had no problems.
"It will happen for Rs 3,500. No need to give a test. Without test it will happen,” Chandan Driving School’s Apparao says.
One such benefactor of these schools is an 18-year-old student. “I joined a driving school and they told me that if I give a minimal fee I could escape giving the test. So, they called me to the RTO and made me sign. There was no test,” the student says.
While some schools do insist on a test, the test itself is a big farce.
“When we went there three others were taking the test along with us. I doubt the inspector even saw us because of the crowds present there,” a driver, Radhika Mehta says.
"No wonder there are so many accidents taking place because the officers in charge are not even checking whether the person is ready to be on the road or not," another driver, Kumudini says.
There were some shocking revelations at the RTO in Tardeo also - two tests were being conducted simultaneously. A cursory glance from an RTO official was all that an aspirant driver covering 50 metres in 30 seconds got and the person was deemed fit to face the monstrous Mumbai traffic.
"He told me to take a round. Nothing else. It's a joke," an aspirant driver says.
Source: IBN