eTransport MMP: Wheel of Growth & Prosperity

Quick Overview

Road Transport is considered as one of the prime movers of a country’s economy. It offers a vital link between production and consumption, particularly when it comes to the last mile/door step delivery of services. Further, road transport needs comparatively lesser expenditure, and is a more flexible alternative. It won’t be an exaggeration to claim that the Road Transport Sector in India, by virtue of the eTransport initiative, has seen phenomenal advancement in process automation, IT enablement and re-engineering of the associated processes, over the last decade or so.

eTransport, an MMP implemented by NIC, under MoRTH, is an umbrella platform, which facilitates various transport services in a computerised, user-friendly manner, and has transformed the service delivery mechanism of vehicle registration, driving license, enforcement, taxation, permit, fitness and related activities.

Today, over 1300 RTOs, 30,000+ Dealer Points provide online transport services, across 33 States/UTs, and in the process contribute Rs. 60,000 crore annually to the government exchequer – 50% of this revenue coming from Digital Payments is noteworthy and encouraging. The Central Repository, National Register, provides easy access to vehicle (29 crore records) and driving license related information (18 crore records) to various stakeholders – Government, Business and Citizen. The figures speak volumes about the project implementation scale, and how its smooth operations are mission critical.

The multitude of applications in its artillery offer innovative solutions for online challaning (eChallan), vehicular pollution compliance (PUCC), anytime, anywhere access to transport services (mParivahan mobile app), and others like Homologation for vehicle type approval, Vehicle Location Tracking Device/CNG/Speed Limiting Device Fitment, Fancy Number Auction, CheckPost, etc. Complementing them are more than 100 online, citizen/trade centric services which facilitate document upload, ePayment, online appointment etc., some of which are completely contactless. Solutions around Vehicle Location Tracking and Road Accident Database are the most recent additions to the list.

Moving forward, upstream and downstream integrations, with a large number of internal/external entities- vehicle manufacturers, dealers, Banks, Insurance Companies, Police, NCRB, FASTag, eWay Bill, Smart Cities, Pollution Checking Centres, Fitness Centres, Driving Schools, etc. – has fashioned its prospect of growing into a full-fledged digital public platform.The wave of reforms has led to significant improvement in stakeholder satisfaction, i.e., ease of service/doing business for citizens/traders, governance mechanism and efficiency of systems. Still, for a holistic transformation experience, more sustainable solutions, along with necessary adoption of national/global best practices and emerging technologies, are continually being explored.In the words of JS (MVL), MoRTH, GoI, “eTransport Mission Mode Project aims to bring convenience and transparency in the entire Transport domain fulfilling the needs of citizens, government and businesses. The technical expertise, rich domain knowledge and sustained efforts of the NIC team, our technical partner, have led to the wide-spread acceptance of various applications developed under the project.

Vahan and Sarathi, with their centralised, web-enabled versions continue to keep the flag high and have penetrated most of the states/ UTs, covering their diverse systems and processes under a unified, common system for various vehicle and license related services. New initiatives like mobile-based eChallan Traffic Enforcement Solution and citizen-centric App mParivahan have further spread range of services..I believe that with the continuous support from NIC team, we continue to succeed in our endeavour to make the life of citizens, government and allied businesses easier.”

Project Impact

Eliminating/Minimising RTO Visits
Like all government endeavours, the key beneficiaries are the citizens, and the driving principle is to facilitate better, efficient and timely services to them. With the implementation of a large number of citizen-centric services, adoption of e-payment and online appointment facility, citizens have the option to carry out a major part of the transactions involved in all processes from the comfort of their homes, and need to visit RTOs only for essential functionalities such as appearing in learner or driving tests, authenticating documents, or getting physical fitness of vehicles done etc., and that too, as per pre-scheduled appointments. Some services such as tax payment, getting specific certificates etc., require no RTO visit at all.Many State Governments are further reengineering their business processes in tandem with the new technological options to further reduce/ eliminate RTO footfall and relieve the citizen and facilitate the entire service in a ‘faceless’ or ‘contactless’ mode.

Making payments online
Most of the states have adopted e-payment facility and some have totally abolished cash payment. About half of the total receipts made through Vahan, Sarathi and other applications – a whooping Rs. 60,000 Crore annually – are through e-payment, giving a big boost to the government’s stated objective of moving towards a cashless regime.

Many State Governments are further reengineering their business processes in tandem with the new technological options to further reduce/ eliminate RTO footfall and relieve the citizen and facilitate the entire service in a ‘faceless’ or ‘contactless’ mode.

Increased Transparency and Accountability
Another major upshot of this whole initiative is the sharp rise in the transparency and accountability in the system. Although there is a lot of ground yet to be covered, in most cases, citizens are facing less hassle in getting their services. Leakages in government revenues have substantially reduced and overall environment in most of the RTOs has become more transparent and citizen-friendly.

Enhanced Monitoring, Value Creation through Dashboards
The parivahan.gov.in portal incorporates various state of the art dashboards, providing a variety of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) depicted in the form of tables, graphs and charts. These live dashboards pull data from the Vahan and Sarathi databases to provide live up-to-date, easy-to-comprehend status of the projects to the entire hierarchy of decision makers, planners and administrators, enabling them to trouble shoot, course correct, plan and take decisions on the fly. This access to relevant information at a glance garners easy involvement of all stakeholders of the eTransport MMP.

Improved Quality of Services
Although it requires a systemic change, starting with enabling legislation down to the implementation details, the Transport Application is equipped to play a significant role in enhancing the quality of services rendered to common citizens through the intervention of appropriate technology and processes.

End Note
eTransport project has expanded far beyond its core domain of vehicle registration and Driving License services and embraced multitude of stake-holders to build a cooperative eco-system, facilitating exchange of data and services. It continues exploring newer avenues, incorporating more areas of service and steadily transforming into a public digital platform, servicing the various internal/external stakeholders through open, secured API. The project is an epitome of coordination between governments and businesses at various levels facilitating the services in an effective and efficient manner. But the journey is still on.