The Motor Vehicle department (MVD) and the Kerala Government are not on the same page over the draft transport policy which mentioned, among others, the need to increase the number of public transport buses and seamlessly integrate them with other modes of commute.
The draft policy was readied on the basis of a survey-cum-study conducted by the department in the wake of the 2019 amendment to the Central Motor Vehicles Act. This had necessitated that State governments ready their respective transport policy.
Admitting that such a policy is overdue for Kerala, sources in the department said the number of vehicles in the State doubling during the past decade to touch over 1 crore is a reason for alarm. A bulk of them were cars and two-wheelers whose purchase saw a steep increase as the number of public transport buses fell from around 35,000 over a decade ago to the current figure of about 15,000.
