Odisha: Transport dept to set up urban seva kendras for online services
File photo of a crowded RTO in Odisha
BHUBANESWAR: If the state transport department has its way, people are no longer required to visit regional transport offices (RTOs) to avail different types of services. The department plans to open Transport Seva Kendra (TSK) in urban areas to decongest the RTOs and assist people to avail the transport-related online services.
TSK will be created on the lines with the Jana Seva Kendras (common service centre) that are operational in rural areas. TSK has been mooted for those, who are not conversant with the computer operations and face difficulties in availing the online services of the transport department. At present, the common service centres have been helping people avail 20 types of RTO-related online services only in the rural areas.
“We plan to open the TSKs in urban areas as the Jana Seva Kendras have the mandate to provide services only in rural areas. The common service centres not just provide services of transport department, but also a number of other departments. The proposed TSK will exclusively deal with the transport related services,” state transport secretary Madhusudan Padhi said.
The proposed TSK will initially come up in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur, Sambalpur and Rourkela municipal corporation areas. The initiative will be implemented through public-private partnership mode. Like the Jana Seva Kendras, the department plans to engage entrepreneurs to operate the proposed TSKs. “We provide nearly 70 types of services of which many are available online. If TSK concept materializes, we will impart training to the private operators on Sarathi and Vahan web-based applications and their operations. We will soon prepare the TSK plan and send it to the government for approval,” state transport commissioner Sanjeeb Panda said.
Like the Jana Seva Kendra, the proposed TSK will charge a nominal user fee from the beneficiaries. “We will approve the same user fee charge for the proposed TSK as currently in case of the Jana Seve Kendra,” Panda said. At present, a Jana Seva Kendra charges Rs 25 for filling of application for learner’s licence and Rs 15 for driving licence, Rs 20 for online payment of the fees for the DL, LL and other DL-related services, Rs 50 for application for transfer of ownership, slot booking and online payment, Rs 20 for booking and rescheduling of slots and Rs 20 for online payment of e-challan compounding fee including copy of the payment receipt.