By: Staff Writer
March 21, Colombo (LNW): The Motor Traffic Department (MTD) is gearing up to resume the much awaited e-Motoring project aimed at digitalizing and streamlining vehicle registration and allied services, Commissioner General of the Department Nishantha Anuruddha Weerasingha said.
It involves in developing, implementing and deploying a comprehensive ICT solution to provide effective and efficient delivery of selected citizen services of Department of Motor Traffic (DMT) and the Provincial Department of Motor Traffic (PDMT).
This Project was planned to update and replace the old Motor Vehicle Registration system that is now in operation, Introduce new practices and streamline the vehicle registration and Imports.
This was designed for Public Convenience and Stream line the process to provide faster and efficient service to public. Already Cabinet has approved a site for implementation and planning to implement it by July this year.
Metropolitan Advanced Technology has been awarded the contract and it has signed the agreement to implement the e Motoring system for MTD.
Senior official at Metropolitan Advanced Technology said that MTD with the Ministry of Transport invited International Competitive Bidding on EOI, followed by Stage Two Envelope Bidding in 2016 on Build Operate and Transfer {BOT} Basis, where the investment is by the contractor and MDT will pay a fee on number of transactions defined only as for new registrations and transfers.
He noted that that allegations of Rs 12.0 billion misappropriation with the implementation of this project were baseless as even calculating hypothetically Rs 1,000 per transaction, for minimum transactions of 60,000 per month, for 5 years the cost will be Rs 3.60 billion.
If transactions improves 2 times (100percent with Improvement in New Vehicles Imports) also will not reach Rs 12.0 billion.
According to official estimation if the e Motoring project is not implemented on time Government will lose Revenue more than Rs 15.0 Billion with malpractices happening in vehicle registration, he added.
After stringent, transparent tender evaluation process Metropolitan Advanced Technology was selected and contract was signed with them in July 2018.
Metropolitan Officials said that they were ready to implement the project since signing of the contract in 2018, in 2019 the software was developed but couldn’t implement it due to reasons beyond their control
Originally DMT was planning to host the e Motor facility at their Narhenpita Head office and Island Wide DMT District Offices from the beginning.
And also to establish two MDT Offices at Hambantota and Colombo Port to monitor the vehicles Imported and affix a sticker to the vehicle with an identification number.
Site visits were made with MDT senior officials made recommendations and process site plans. Since the government change at that time new Transport Minister and Commissioner General was appointed, they revisited the project and on the request of the then President ICTA looked at the Software that was already developed.
After the approvals, the new Ministry of Transport and MDT management was looking for a new place to implement the e Motoring Project at another site due to non-suitability of the MDT Head Office building condition.
