Many foreign students driving without licences in Vizag, vehicles also do not have proper records, say police

Of the hundreds of foreigners living here for years, only a handful of foreigners (less than 50) in the city have taken up driving licenses, as per the RTA officials. While some visit the city for studies, some are tourists and others come for jobs, including in star hotels.

In the case of foreign students, around 1,500 students from 57 countries are studying at Andhra University and GITAM deemed to be University.

As per Section 9(3) (a) (iii) of the Motor Vehicles Act, foreigners, including students of universities and other institutions, can obtain driving licenses in Andhra Pradesh.

“According to records, in the last five years, fewer than 50 driving licences have been issued to foreigners. This number needs to increase and more awareness camps on this issue are needed. The RTA has a provision to issue them a driving licence as per the MV Act. Foreigners, including foreign students, can avail this provision. Driving without a valid driving licence is an offence and punishable under Section 181 of the MV Act. The punishment or fine will be up to three months depending on the category of vehicle,” said G.C. Raja Ratnam, Deputy Transport Commissioner (Admin, Act & Rules) at the A.P. Road Transport Department headquarters, told The Hindu on February 6.

Under this MV Act, foreign students of GITAM and Andhra University who are driving bikes and cars in the city are liable to punishment as it is believed that many of them do not have driving licences issued by the local authorities.

According to AU sources, there are 1,077 foreign students from 57 countries studying undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Of them, 640 students are staying in seven hostels, including two girls’ hostels. The remaining students are staying in private properties like apartments and service rooms outside the campus. Most of them use motor vehicles and drive on city roads.

“Some students from Iraq and Jordan also use cars. Many students have bikes. As per our records, three students have died in road accidents since 2014. They are from Afghanistan, Sudan and recently, a Bangladesh national,” said an AU international students’ affairs officer.

KPC Kishan, director of international students affairs, GITAM, said, “We have over 400 foreign students from 38 countries. We are requesting the authorities concerned to organise special driving license fairs for foreign students in campus. We will work on it so that all our foreign students have driving licences if they want to drive vehicles in the city and on campus. We will also bring it to the notice of our university president and Visakhapatnam MP M. Sribharat.”

Andhra University Registrar Prof. E. Dhanamjaya Rao said, “We are now taking this seriously. We have been facing some experiences when our foreign students get involved in road accidents. Recently, a B. Pharmacy student from Bangladesh also died in a road accident. The bike rider was also a foreign student of our university. We have requested the police and transport officials to visit our campus to organise awareness camps and fairs on such issues.”

Visakhapatnam City Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) K. Praveen Kumar said: “We have noticed that foreign students are driving vehicles without licences and the vehicles do not have proper documents. This is a big problem for us and the safety of the citizens. From our side, we are ready to cooperate with the authorities concerned at any time. This is a collective effort.”