The Road Safety and Transport Authority (RSTA) in Thimphu has recently been on the receiving end of people’s frustrations for not being able to provide its services to everyone. There were hues and cries from the public on social media which led to the opening of three temporary sub-stations in Thimphu in mid-October. However, most didn’t make use of these sub-stations. According to RSTA, only about 30 per cent of the targeted people came to avail the service.
The sub-stations were established to clear the backlog of vehicle renewals this year due to the pandemic.
The sub-stations were established in Dechencholing in the North, Changligmithang parking in the centre and Lower Babesa Truck Parking in the south. Initially, the RSTA targeted to deliver services to around 8,000 vehicle owners in Thimphu. According to the officiating Director General of the authority, they had the capacity to provide services to over 700 people in a day. However, in two weeks, the highest number of people to avail the services in a day was about 280 people. This way, only over 2,000 people availed the services.
“It is the nature of our people to rush at the last moment. No matter how many weeks and months we provide services, people will come only at the last minute. We have now no option but impose fines and penalties as it is. This is because if we extend the time, this year will end soon and starting next year, it has its things to be done. So we cannot go on postponing this year’s renewal to next year and go on that way,” said Ugyen Norbu, the Officiating Director General of RSTA.
He said the authority has tried all its means to notify the general public about the services.
“We have called over 2,000 vehicle owners to come forward for the renewals. More than this, we sought the help of our traffic police. For more than a week, traffic police on duty along the highway have been telling people to go and avail the services from the sub-stations. However, people did not turn up. Besides all these, we even shared the information on many social media platforms. We have requested people to come forward to avail the services but people did not,” he added.
While the initiative failed to achieve its goal, the number of people visiting the main office did reduce in the past two weeks. Earlier, people were seen lining up outside the office even before opening the office. However, after the stations were opened, fewer people visited the main office. And RSTA officials now fear that crowding will start all over again.
The officiating Director-General of the RSTA said the lower amount of penalty could be another reason for the ignorance:
“Besides knowing everything about the renewals and penalties, people still do not turn up and this I think is because the penalty is low. The penalty is only Nu 10 per day and people take that to be nothing. So we are planning to revise the penalty as well.”
Today, there are over 14,000 backlogs of vehicle renewal in the country with about 8,000 in Thimphu alone.
Kinley Dem
