High demand, server overload: Issuance of PUCC slows in Delhi

New Delhi: The process of issuing Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates slowed down across several parts of the capital on Friday as increasing demand led to an overload on the central server. This led to long queues at pollution-check centres at fuel pumps.People operating the centres said the problem started around 11 am, with the system either failing repeatedly or taking unusually long to complete emission tests.
Like Thursday, when the ‘no PUC, no fuel' directive kicked in, enforcement teams were deployed on Friday at city borders, on major roads and at petrol pumps, checking vehicles for compliance. As a result, many rushed to get their vehicles tested, adding to the pressure on the system.Delhi has 966 authorised PUC centres and the number of vehicles turning up for emission tests rose sharply over the past few days. On Thursday, 45,479 certificates were issued, a jump of nearly 46% over Wednesday's number. "Due to this excessive load, the server may have slowed down temporarily. However, testing has not been completely halted," transport department officials said."The server was down intermittently on Friday. In many cases, tests are failing midway. Even when the process is going through, it's taking 10 to 15 minutes per vehicle, which is much longer than usual," said an operator at an east Delhi petrol pump. Delhi Petrol Dealers' Association also said that several pumps faced server-related issues at their PUC centres. The technical snag resulted in many vehicle owners facing a long wait or trying their luck at multiple centres. Rahul Anand, who drove into a pump in Mayur Vihar for a PUC test, said this was the second pump he had visited. "I thought it was crowded yesterday as it was the first day of the directive. But, there's a rush today as well," he said. Supporting the anti-pollution crackdown, he said, "You can see the roads are comparatively less crowded today, which means a lot of people were earlier driving without the certificates." Another vehicle owner, Vishnu Dayal, said he had been waiting in a queue for over 20 minutes at a Ghazipur pump. "The queue is not moving one bit," he added. With the enforcement expected to continue in the days ahead, govt advised motorists to plan their visits to the centres in advance to avoid inconvenience.

Get an chance to win ₹5000 Amazon Voucher by taking part in India's Biggest Habit Index! Take the survey here