Around 12,600 vehicles of all types have been added to Shillong’s roads since January, District Transport Office figures have revealed.
These include two-wheelers, commercial vehicles, private, tourist, tractors, trailers, JCB earth movers, etc.
The figures, however, do not include those vehicles that were taken off the road, those that were moved to different districts or those that are driven in Shillong but registered elsewhere.
Some 6,069 two-wheelers were registered in the Shillong DTO this year, while there were also 5,234 private motorcars, 353 commercial vehicles, 824 commercial trucks and seven buses (not counting city buses). These figures also exclude trailers, tractors and JCBs.
No new taxi permits have been issued since 2009. However, permits can be transferred between vehicles.
“The board meeting in 2009, headed by the Deputy Commissioner as the chairman and District Transport Officer as the secretary, decided to stop the issuance of permits to local taxis to curb the traffic jam problem except for the replacement cases where the same permit is transferred to the new vehicle,” East Khasi Hills District Transport Officer, D Lamin, told reporters, adding that the DTO did not issue permits for city buses since 2009 also since they do not have a parking space or specific bus stands.
Lamin made it clear that the DTO is a revenue department and it cannot stop registration of vehicles if the owners fulfil all the criteria set forth. The traffic snarls that plague the state capital almost daily are the lookout of the traffic police, while road building and expansion is the responsibility of the Public Works Department and parking that of Urban Affairs and the Shillong Municipal Board.
