Situated at the far eastern corner of India and bordering Myanmar, Manipur state provides a major corridor for a booming Indo-Myanmar trade. In the absence of railways and waterways in the state, the road transport system serves as the primary means for movement of people, goods and other essential supplies both within and outside the state. Hence, computerisation to bring about modernization and efficiency in the transport sector was not only important but crucial to the overall progress of the state. Vahan and Sarathi are standardised software applications developed by NIC Hq. to meet the twin objectives of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) towards adopting standard data formats and software for vehicle registration and driving licences so as to build a national register of vehicles and driving licences and simultaneously provide e-services to citizens through various District Transport Offices (DTOs) located across the country. Vahan is for processing of all transactions related to vehicles for issuance of Registration Certificate while Sarathi is for driving licence.
AcHiEVEMENTS AND SERVicES Since a modest beginning in 2003 when the Vahan software was taken up at Imphal West DTO as a pilot site, the Transport Computerisation in Manipur has come a long way. All the six DTOs. of the state are covered by Vahan and Sarathi. The Smart Card based Registration Certificates (RC) and Driving Licences (DL) was first introduced at Imphal West DTO and the remaining DTOs were covered by 2010. The State Registers (SR) of vehicles and driving licences has already been created and Manipur data is incorporated into the National Register (NR) as well. SR and NR are continuously updated over network connections. Citizen Centric Services (CSS) are provided through SR and NR at http://vahan.nic.in and http://sarathi.nic.in. Important services include Vehicle Search, Driving Licence Search and Online application for Learners’ Licence etc. Restricted services meant for authorised users are also provided through NR. Many other services are also in the offing. The new National Permit system for inter-state goods vehicles has also been successfully implemented. Payment of permit fee is now strictly through online and e-challans.
SERVicES THRouGH VAHAN Vehicle Registration New Vehicle Registration Renewal of Registration Transfer of Ownership Change of Address etc. payment of fees at the cash counters Permit Issue of National & Interstate Permit Renewal of Permit Taxes State-wise tax calculation & Payment Fitness Issue of Fitness Certificate Renewal of Fitness Certificate Enforcement Issue of Challan Settlement of Penalty Amount
SERVicES To ciTizEN Information Query Application Status Tracking Online Application Submission & Processing Tax Payment through Payment Gateway Online Permit Renewal
SERVicES THRouGH SARATHi Driving License Issuance of Lerner’s License Issuance of Permanent Driving License Renewal of Driving License Change of address of Driving License Issuance of Duplicate License Issuance of International Driving Permit Issuance of Driving License for persons holding foreign Driving License Conductor’s License Issuance of Conductor’s License Renewal of Conductor’s License Driving School License Issuance of License to Driving School Fees Calculation of fees and Payment
SERVicES To ciTizEN Information Query Application Status Tracking Online Application Submission & Processing Fees Payment through Payment Gateway The importance of “ready to access” databases of vehicles and driving licences for law enforcing and investigating agencies is immense. The state also has a sizeable market for used vehicles from other states giving rise to apprehension of stolen vehicles or otherwise involved in other crimes finding their way using forged documents. The services provided by NR will go a long way in mitigating such threats by allowing Registering Authorities to verify the vehicle credentials before granting registration. Likewise, prospective buyers too can verify the details online before deciding to buy such vehicles.
cApTuRiNG of BioMETRicS foR DRiViNG licENcE Technologies: VAHAN 2.0 is a 32 bit, GUI rich application written entirely in JAVA. It has three-tier application architecture. The components of the tiers are: Database - VAHAN 2.0 supports three databases namely DB2 version 7.2 and higher, Oracle 9i and 10G and MSSQL server 2000 and higher. Application server – This is the middle layer of the application. It uses JAVA RMI framework to establish connection to clients, and the JAVA JDBC framework to establish connection to the database. Client – This is the GUI layer of the application, which interacts with the client by means of forms. The application may run as stand-alone on a single computer or in a client server mode. In the client server mode the database exists on the server machine while on the same machine if being run in the stand alone mode. SARATHI –Uses VB6 as front end and Oracle 10g database. Oracle data Integrator (ODI) is used for data replication and consolidation from various DTOs to the central server over secured network connection. State Key Management Authority (SKMA) & Regional Key Management Authority (RKMA) applications are used for management of authority smart cards and keys with SQL server as backend.
CHALLENGES The biggest challenge faced were shortage of electricity and manpower at the DTOs. With power availability of at most two third hours a day and that too without certainty the challenges of server crashes, other hardware failures and battery damages were frequent. Overall, the processes at the DTOs have become efficient, transparent, systematic and most importantly the provisions of Motor Vehicles Act are better enforced.
LOOKING AHEAD Recently, two Registering and Licensing Authority (RLA) offices have been opened. Necessary H/W for computerisation of these offices has already been approved by MoRTH and is expected to become operational soon. Providing facilities for online payment of fees and taxes will enhance the citizen centric services in near future.