In order to bring e-Rickshaws and e-Carts under the ambit of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2014, was introduced in Lok Sabha on 15 December 2014 by Shri Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways. The Lok Sabha passed this Bill on 18 December 2014. It is now required to be passed by the Rajya Sabha before it could be sent to the President for his assent in order for it to become law.
In the aforesaid Amendment Bill, e-cart or e-rickshaw have been defined to mean a special purpose battery powered vehicle of power not exceeding 4000 watts, having three wheels for carrying goods or passengers for hire or reward. They are required to be manufactured, constructed or adapted, equipped and maintained in accordance with specifications to be prescribed in this behalf. Further, the specification for speed and dimension can be regulated through the rules which can be made under the MV Act.
It is pertinent to point out that under the provisions of Section 7(1) of the existing Motor Vehicles Act, a person is granted a learner’s licence to drive a transport vehicle (i.e., public service vehicle, a goods carriage, an educational institution bus or a private service vehicle), only if he has held a driving licence to drive a light motor vehicle for at least one year. It may be pointed out that a light motor vehicle is (i) a transport vehicle or omnibus the gross vehicle weight of which does not exceed 7,500 kilograms, or (ii) a motor car or tractor or road-roller the unladen weight of which does not exceed 7,500 kilograms.
The aforesaid Amendment Bill amends the above Section 7(1) to exempt e-rickshaw and e-cart drivers from this requirement. A newly added Section 9(10) states that the conditions for issuing the driver licences for e-cart or e-rickshaw shall be prescribed. It is stated in the “Statement of Objects and Reasons” of the Amendment Bill that these vehicles may be allowed to be driven by drivers who have been found eligible to drive E-rickshaws and E-carts through tests.
It is mentioned that these provisions will provide employment to innumerable people who have upgraded from the manually pulled rickshaws to be electric powered three-wheeled vehicles.
[Note: Image courtesy: http://shubhsteelworks.in/Shop%20picture/E-rickshaw/2.jpg.]
The aforesaid Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2014, is reproduced below.
