Licence, training and testing

A training centre the State Government has accredited under the Central Motor Vehicles Rules as amended by the Ministry's notification of 7 June 2021, made under the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019. Accreditation vests the centre with functions an ordinary driving school does not have — among them testing the aspirant for the issue of a driving licence.

• Source: Ministry of Road Transport & Highways — Guidelines of the scheme for setting up IDTRs, RDTCs and DTCs (15th Finance Commission cycle, 2021-22 to 2025-26)
• Source: Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019

A licence aspirant who completes training at an accredited centre is issued a course completion certificate in Form 5B, and the holder of it is exempted from the requirement of the driving test. It is not a licence — the licensing authority still issues that.

• Source: Ministry of Road Transport & Highways — Guidelines of the scheme for setting up IDTRs, RDTCs and DTCs (15th Finance Commission cycle, 2021-22 to 2025-26)
• Source: Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 — Rule 15(2)

At least thirty days. No person may appear for the test of competence to drive before that.

• Source: Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 — Rule 15

For a non-transport vehicle, not less than twenty-one days and not less than ten hours of actual driving. For a transport vehicle, not less than thirty days and not less than fifteen hours. A driver who already holds a medium goods or medium passenger vehicle licence and is training for a heavy vehicle needs not less than five hours.

• Source: Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 — Rule 31(2), 31(3) and 31(4)

Eleven lettered parts: driving theory, traffic education, light vehicle driving practice, vehicle mechanism and repairs, medium and heavy vehicle driving, traffic education II, public relations for drivers, heavy vehicle driving practice, fire hazards, vehicle maintenance, and first-aid. A non-transport course covers parts A, B, C, F, G and K; a transport course covers E, F, G, H, I, J and K.

• Source: Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 — Rule 31(1), (2) and (3)

Twenty-nine hours spread over four weeks — eight hours of theory and twenty-one of driving practice, of which four are on the simulator and two are the test and evaluation itself.

• Source: Ministry of Road Transport & Highways — Guidelines of the scheme for setting up IDTRs, RDTCs and DTCs (15th Finance Commission cycle, 2021-22 to 2025-26)

Thirty-eight hours spread over six weeks — sixteen hours of theory and twenty-two of driving practice. Entry requires one year completed on a light motor vehicle licence.

• Source: Ministry of Road Transport & Highways — Guidelines of the scheme for setting up IDTRs, RDTCs and DTCs (15th Finance Commission cycle, 2021-22 to 2025-26)

The theory paper is forty questions drawn at random by software from a bank of at least a thousand, weighted across topics, and sixty per cent passes. The practical is marked on a fixed checksheet out of a hundred and sixty passes — except that a serious or dangerous fault disqualifies regardless of the total.

• Source: Ministry of Road Transport & Highways — Guidelines of the scheme for setting up IDTRs, RDTCs and DTCs (15th Finance Commission cycle, 2021-22 to 2025-26)

Eighty-five per cent, and it is what earns the right to sit the examination at all. Short attendance or failure in driving practice extends the training rather than waiving it.

• Source: Ministry of Road Transport & Highways — Guidelines of the scheme for setting up IDTRs, RDTCs and DTCs (15th Finance Commission cycle, 2021-22 to 2025-26)

No. The Ministry's scheme funds the capital cost of building a centre — up to eighty-five per cent of the project cost, capped at ₹2.50 crore for a district centre — but pays nothing towards running it, and states that the centre may charge an appropriate fee for the training programme. Where a centre draws on a skill development programme such as PMKVY, the fee must follow the structure notified by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

• Source: Ministry of Road Transport & Highways — Guidelines of the scheme for setting up IDTRs, RDTCs and DTCs (15th Finance Commission cycle, 2021-22 to 2025-26)

About two acres of land, two classrooms with computers and a projector, one light and one heavy vehicle simulator, two light and one heavy training vehicle, an automated driving track, broadband with biometric attendance, a workshop with exhibits, and separate toilets for men and women.

• Source: Ministry of Road Transport & Highways — Guidelines of the scheme for setting up IDTRs, RDTCs and DTCs (15th Finance Commission cycle, 2021-22 to 2025-26)

A two to three day capsule for drivers already in service, covering behavioural practice and stress management, defensive driving, traffic rules, emergency handling, maintenance and fuel conservation, pollution, and case studies of real accidents. It ends in a practical skill test and a behavioural analysis.

• Source: Ministry of Road Transport & Highways — Guidelines of the scheme for setting up IDTRs, RDTCs and DTCs (15th Finance Commission cycle, 2021-22 to 2025-26)
• Source: Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 — Rule 31J(1)(C)

Three tiers of the same scheme. An Institute of Driving Training and Research is the model institute on ten to fifteen acres; a Regional Driver Training Centre sits on about three acres, roughly one per crore of projected State population; a Driving Training Centre is the district-level centre on about two acres.

• Source: Ministry of Road Transport & Highways — Guidelines of the scheme for setting up IDTRs, RDTCs and DTCs (15th Finance Commission cycle, 2021-22 to 2025-26)

Because the Ministry's own reading of the crash data is that the driver is at fault in the great majority of road accidents — its scheme cites 82 per cent for 2019 — and that testing by an objective, scientific process, on an automated track with the training that precedes it, is a better guarantee than a queue.

• Source: Ministry of Road Transport & Highways — Guidelines of the scheme for setting up IDTRs, RDTCs and DTCs (15th Finance Commission cycle, 2021-22 to 2025-26)