The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has decided to address the driver shortage by doing away with the mandate of minimum educational qualification for obtaining a driving licence. As per Rule 08 of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989, a transport vehicle driver is required to have passed class 08. The move is expected to address the bottleneck resulting in a severe shortage of skilled drivers which is estimated at 22 lakh. However, while removing the requirement of minimum educational qualification, the Ministry has emphasised upon the need for training and skill testing of drivers such that road safety is not compromised as a result. Anyone applying for a driving license will have to mandatorily pass a stringent skill test. Training would be imparted by a school or establishment as mentioned in the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 to ensure that the driver is capable of comprehending road signs, and perform tasks such as maintenance of driver logs, inspection of trucks and trailers, submission of pre-trip and post-trip records, determination of discrepancies in paperwork, effective communication to report safety hazards as the need may be in the transportation and logistics segment. The removal of the requirement for educational qualification in the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill was passed previously in Lok Sabha. The subject was later deliberated upon by the Standing Committee and a select committee of the Parliament.

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