PMV operators finally obtain blue plates

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By JUNIOR UKAHA
THIRTY Public Motor Vehicle (PMV) owners in Morobe have finally received their PMV plates from the Transport Department after waiting for almost a year.
The group, which included 18 operators from the Klinki PMV Association in Bulolo, were handed their blue plates last week.
Morobe traffic registry executive officer Joshua Mais told The National yesterday that his office was pleased to hand over the long-awaited number plates to the operators.
He said the delay was caused by the hold up in allocating serial numbers for processing of the plates by the Transport Department.
“The number plates arrived on the last week of August,” according to Mais.
“We had distributed them to the PMV operators last week. About 30 operators got theirs.
“We have machines to print the number plates here but the delay was because we were not issued serial numbers by the Transport Department in Port Moresby.
“Therefore, we could not print the number plates.
“We have to be careful with the serial numbers because we might be duplicating them.”
Klinki PMV Association chairman Dan Nali said it was a relief for his members to receive their number plates because they had been penalised by police for the last nine months.
“We provide a valuable service to the community and we expect things like this to be done on time,” Nali said.
“It is not good paying K60 to police every time there is a roadblock just because we do not have a PMV plate.
“This is not our fault. We have applied for it but the delay is with the authorities.”
Nali, whose group has more than 200 vehicles, called on the department to give the function of producing PMV plates back to the provinces.
This is to make it easier for operators to get their plates instead of waiting for months for Port Moresby to print them, he said.