eTransport MMP ensures transparency and boosts revenue for transport ministry

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways’ (MoRTH) Transport Mission Mode Project (eTransport MMP), executed by National Informatics Centre (NIC), has successfully automated Regional Transport Office (RTO) operations across the country. The project has also achieved a milestone after helped setting up a consolidated nationwide transport database with real-time update and availability.

The eTransport MMP project is an extensive array of G2G, G2B and G2C services, benefiting citizens, transporters, vehicle dealers, manufacturers, police and security agencies, banks, insurance companies, along with various state and Central government departments . It has reached a high maturity level, and centralised, web enabled versions- Vahan 4.0 and Sarathi 4.0 have already been implemented in almost all states, all RTOs of the country, except a few states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh as they use a separate software.

Further, the project has a central repository in the form of National Register, hosting over 26 crore vehicle records and 17 crore license records. Successful foray has also been made in the area of traffic enforcement solution through eChallan application, and mParivahan, which is a mobile extension of various transport services. The recently launched PUCC, a web-enabled application which caters to the pollution check points across the country, towards ensuring greater pollution compliance of vehicles, has also been a great success.

NIC claims that the project has brought absolute transparency and helped the transport ministry increase its revenue by using modern ICT tools.

The genesis of the eTransport MMP goes back to the year 2000 when Vahan and Sarathi were conceived on the recommendations of MoRTH, the nodal ministry. The project got expanded at a national level when it was included as a Mission Mode Project of National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). Further, a committee, Smart Card Operating System for Transport Applications (SCOSTA) was set up to study the process of defining the standards for registration certificates and driving licenses, on a pan-India level, to ensure interoperability, accuracy and timely availability of information. Initially, the applications and databases were all distributed and localised at the RTO level. In 2015, the centralised, web versions – Vahan4 and Sarathi4 were launched and gradually all legacy applications migrated into this common national platform.

Benefits for common citizens
With the implementation of over 100 citizen-centric and trade-centric services, adoption of e-payment and online appointment facility, citizens can easily do online transactions from anywhere. The need to visit RTOs arise only for essential work such as appearing in learner or driving tests, authenticating documents, or getting physical fitness of vehicles done, and that too, as per pre-scheduled appointments. Some services such as tax payment, getting specific certificates, require no RTO visit at all. As the automobile dealers are using the Vahan4 Dealer Point software, the process of new registration of vehicles do not require any RTO touchpoint.

Many state governments are further aligning their business processes with the new technological options to further reduce RTO footfall. Gujarat has started ‘Faceless Service’ for seven of its online services, implying zero RTO visits for those services. Most of the states have adopted e-payment facility and some have totally done away with cash payment system. About half of the total receipts made through the eTransport applications are through e-payment.

The project has brought in the transparency and accountability in the system. Although there is a lot of ground yet to be covered, in most cases, citizens are facing less hassle in availing services. Leakages in government revenues have substantially reduced. Although it requires a systemic change, starting with enabling legislation down to the implementation details, the Transport Application is equipped to play a significant role in enhancing the quality of services rendered to common citizens through the intervention of appropriate technology and processes.

Joydeep Shome, Senior Technical Director, Transport MMP project, NIC, says, “The project has enhanced efficiency, transparency, accountability and reliability in services, minimised RTO footfall by maximising online services, extended range and quality of G2C, G2B and G2G services, created integrated ecosystem enabling synergies among various stakeholders and facilitated secure data sharing with approved users as per policy.”

Key benefits of the project included service improvement. Shome states, “Facility of online application has not only facilitated huge number of concurrent transactions but has also enhanced the overall transparency and accountability in the system. Since for most of the processes the payments are made online, cash handling and revenue leakage has reduced to a great extent.”

Major impact
The governance impact includes better compliance with norms – eChallan, PUCC. It has enabled connectivity among systems, removed redundancies and increased collaborations. Some other impacts include decision support systems for informed decisions, monitoring and forecasting- dashboards, data analytics and AI.

For citizens, the project has increased convenience with anytime, anywhere capabilities- online payments, mParivahan, online services, enhanced responsibility and accountability towards rule compliance, more connected as more informed and involved- dashboards, SMS alerts, online channels, social media and more business opportunities and efficient working owing to seamless, connected systems – National Permit, Trade Certificate, Document Management System, Data sharing, etc., initiatives.

Key challenges faced
Initially, convincing various stakeholders and government officials to adopt to the transparent and accountable platform came as a challenge. Subsequently, convincing the authorities for adopting appropriate BPR in line with changing technological progress was also a challenge.

Some other challenges include meeting continuous and high demand to deliver more applications, modules, services from states, other stake-holders, high level of inter-state divergence in rules, processes, practices and consequent need for customisation of applications is a challenge. Handling infrastructure sizing/number/model (cloud/hardware) issues, on-the-go, to avoid performance bottle-necks in the system.