New body to monitor traffic

By SALLY TIWARI
THE Transport Department is in the process of amending the Traffic Act for land transport.
Secretary Henry Parake said this was to create a road traffic authority that would counter the illegal activities of PMV operators such as overcharging of fees and not completing routes.
Parake was responding to the Port Moresby Public Motor Vehicle (PMV) Association president Jack Waso who called on the department to fast-track the process of issuing licences to PMV operators.
Waso said many PMV buses in the city were operating without licenses because the department has been delaying the issuing of license.
He said prior to 2006, the registration stickers and licenses were processed within weeks.
But from 2008, it has taken months to process them.
“This is causing inconvenience for the PMV operators who in most cases obtain loans to purchase the PMV buses, as they cannot operate without their license,” he said.
He also requested that the department allow the issuing of license for taxi operators in the city.
Waso said with the increasing number of people moving into the city, there seemed to be a shortage of PMV and taxi operators.
Parake, however, said he was the last person to ensure the PMV operators meet all the requirements before issuing the license and registration which took only a week.
He said the requirements included police clearance, business location, registration, driver qualification and financial information on the operator.
He said if either of the requirements was not met, then the process was delayed by the operators and not the officers.
Parake said there was no restriction on issuing of taxi licenses as claimed.
He said there were
requirements one of which was the taxi metre which many taxi operators failed to obtain.