In a move to bolster passenger safety across the state, all commercial vehicle drivers in Meghalaya will now be mandatorily required to display their personal details—including name, contact number, license number, and address—on their vehicles.
Tourism Minister and spokesperson of the MDA 2.0 Government, Paul Lyngdoh, on Tuesday said, “This information will help to minimise any possibility of criminal activities being committed using these commercial vehicles and it will also upscale the sense of security amongst travellers, whether locals or travelling to Meghalaya.”
The announcement came after a high-level meeting chaired by Deputy Chief Minister in charge of Transport, Sniawbhalang Dhar, and attended by Minister Paul Lyngdoh.
“We will ensure that those who do not abide by this arrangement after the expiry of the period of one month, they will not be allowed to ply vehicles commercially any more. As soon as we notify, we will give one month from the date of issuance of Notification,” Lyngdoh added.
He directed authorities to “immediately issue a wide publicity notice that will see the compulsory compliance by all commercial vehicle owners, where they will have to mandatorily display all information about the driver of each commercial vehicle including his license, his contact details, name and address.”
Justifying the move, Lyngdoh stated, “The whole idea is that anybody can board commercial vehicles and there is a sense of security when you know who is driving you around. This is practised in many cities across the world and with the rise of footfall of visitors to Meghalaya, this will be an addition to the sense of security that the travellers will have when we have such kind of mechanical eco system.”
The mandate will apply to all types of commercial vehicles issued passenger permits by the Transport Department and will be enforced statewide.
