Even before it has begun working in full-swing, the National Road Safety Institute (NRSI) is expected to clash with district and provincial authorities.

Concerns are being aired that provincial bodies would be reluctant to hand over charge to the centre to collect revenues generated through the issuance of drivers’ licences for commercial vehicles.On July 31, President Asif Ali Zardari laid the foundation stone of the NRSI, which is being set up on 80 kanals in Sector H-8 at a cost of Rs38 million. The idea for the project was aired by the National Highway and Motorway (NH&MW) Police and is expected to be completed in six months.

According to Javed Chaudhry, the  NH&MW Police spokesman, the headquarters of NRSI would be first established in the federal capital while the  provincial and district offices would be set up later.

“Besides ensuring road safety on national highways, the institute will make a database of commercial drivers in the country after which it will be mandatory for all private and government institutions to get their drivers registered with RSI,” he sad.

He added: “It is also planned that the NRSI will be a licensing authority which will issue driving licenses throughout the country for commercial drivers.”

This will surely turn out to be a moot point as the provincial and district governments would be deprived of heavy revenues they generate.

Under the Motor Vehicle Ordinance 1965, district authorities are empowered to deal with road safety and traffic. On the other hand, the National Highways Safety Ordinance 2000, which applies on the NH&MW Police, the federal authority issues licences to commercial drivers.

But despite all controversies and clash of interests, road safety experts are of the view that there was a dire need for the establishment of NRSI with a task to streamline the whole traffic system in the country, preparation of first database of commercial and private drivers, training of commercial drivers, vehicle fitness and road safety awareness to the public.“There must be such an authority to deal with road safety matters which works on scientific lines,” said a senior official of the Islamabad Traffic Police on the condition of anonymity.

He added, “Presently district and provincial government has no expertise or facilities to deal with commercial drivers and therefore no significant work has been done on the issue. If we train commercial drivers on modern road safety techniques we believe that we would be able to cut down fatal road accidents by more than 50 per cent in Pakistan.”

Similarly, there is no mechanism for fitness of vehicles and evaluate drivers especially those who are plying commercial vehicles like buses, wagons and trucks on national arteries.   “We can ignore private car drivers but not those who drive commercial vehicles because their minor mistakes can put the life of dozens of people in danger,” a senior citizen Abdul Wahid said.