Bhubaneswar: After giving a month’s relief, the state government Monday said Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates issued online will be mandatory for all motor vehicles from October 1.
Due to lack of infrastructure at pollution testing centers (PTCs), the government had relaxed the norms and had allowed vehicles to obtain manual PUCs for a month. Now, the manual certificates issued by the PTCs after September 30 will be treated as invalid, said State Transport Authority (STA).
The PUC certificates issued online can be shown in electronic form through mParivahan App and it’s not mandatory for the citizens to carry the certificate in physical form as per the provisions of Information Technology Act, 2000.
Currently, 163 authorised pollution testing centres are functioning throughout the state out of which 106 have already been linked with the VAHAN to issue online PUC certificates.
Sources said 69,210 PUC certificates have been issued online from September 1 to 20 while only 14 new PTCs have been authorised after the MV Act came into effect.
The PUC certificate testing fees for two and three-wheelers is Rs 60, for light motor vehicles is Rs 100 and for medium & heavy motor vehicles the rate is Rs 150 and GST as applicable in addition to the fees, they said.
Anyone can find the nearest valid authorised PTC by just logging into www.odishatransport.gov.in and www.orissatransport.nic.in.