Posts of DTOs are back with a new name: Punjab govt restructured transport department; work allotted to 23 RTOs

Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ November 30,2023

Punjab government has once again restructured the state transport department.

Now, the all the 23 districts in the state to have regional transport officers, like earlier district transport officers were working in the state. Besides these, four secretary, regional transport authorities will look after the work delegated, assigned to them after the restructuring of the department. Similarly, the sub-divisional magistrates (SDMs) will look after the work assigned to them after the restructuring.

At present 11 RTAs were working, looking after the 23 districts. With the new restructuring 15 PCS officers and 8 transport department officers will be appointed as RTOs in all the 23 districts. Out of 4 secretary RTAs, three PCS officers and one, transport department officer will do the job.

Now, the secy RTAs will frame and approve the time tables of the routes, renewal of stage carriage permits, transfers of permits, replacement of vehicles, grant of temporary permits, clubbing of permits, conversion of buses from ordinary to HVAC and vice versa, etc

The jurisdiction of Secretary, Regional Transport Authority, Patiala will comprise Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib, Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar, Ludhiana, Roopnagar, Malerkotla and Sangrur. The

Secretary, Regional Transport Authority Bathinda will comprise Bathinda, Faridkot, Mansa, Barnala districts.  Secretary, Regional Transport Authority Jalandhar will comprise Jalandhar, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Kapurthala, Pathankot, Hoshiarpur, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar and Tarn Taran. Secretary, Regional Transport Authority Ferozepur will comprise Ferozepur, Sri Muktsar Sahib,Fazilka and Moga districts.

In another orders, suppressing all previous Notifications issued in this regard from time to time and in pursuance of the provisions of rule 3 read with rule 33 of Punjab Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 and all other powers enabling him in this behalf, the Governor of Punjab is pleased to appoint all Regional Transport Officers or Sub- Divisional Magistrates or Assistant Transport Officers as Regional Transport Officers, Sub-Divisional Magistrates  as empowered as Licensing Authority and Registering Authority (Motor Vehicles) .

Now, the newly formed regional transport officers are empowered as licensing authority and registering authority (Motor Vehicle) in respect of transport vehicles for the whole district under their jurisdiction and to issue driving license and certificate of non-transport vehicle.

Similarly, SDMs, except at district headquarters are empowered as licensing authority (Motor Vehicle) in respect of non-transport vehicles to issue driving license and as registering authority to issue certificate of registration within their jurisdiction.

Also, the two sub-divisions at district headquarters Amritsar, Ludhiana and Jalandhar the registration series of both the sub-divisions shall be transferred to the concerned RTOs and the later series will cease to exist on its completion like Amritsar PB- 89, Jalandhar PB-90 and Ludhiana PB-91.

Now, after the completion of the ongoing series of the Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana (PB-89,90,91) all the new vehicles will be booked under PB-02, PB-08, PB-10 respectively.

Posts of DTOs are back with a new name: Punjab govt restructured transport department; work allotted to 23 RTOs. Earlier, the Capt Amarinder Singh led congress government had abolished the posts of DTOs in 2017. After that restructuring, the work related to commercial vehicles was handed over to 11 Regional Transport Authority (RTA) offices, assigned to do registration, licensing, permit issuance, and tax collection, besides registering personal vehicles. Six additional posts of Secretary RTAs were also created to fill in the gap created by the abolition of the 22 DTO posts.