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Photo: G.R.N. Somashekar

The boss himself Maruti Udyog head Jagdish Khattar behind the wheel

“You will have to follow the traffic rules, or else we won’t be able to issue you a certificate,” comes the clear-cut solution from Naresh Kush, in charge of the Sarai Kale Khan centre of the Institute of Driving Training and Research in New Delhi. Dismissing them, Kush comments, “It is the attitude of the age. Such learners, if they don’t straighten up, are given only a certificate of participation.”

Road safety, he underlines while taking this reporter around the facility, run by automobile giant Maruti Udyog, gets as much importance as driving lessons. He shows teaching materials like booklets, CDs and an exhaustive manual on safe driving used for the theory class, all made in-house. Plus a visit to the simulator room, where learners are left free behind the wheels only to be told at the end where the computers caught them going wrong.

R.K. Parimoo, Director, IDTR, corroborates, “Our training doesn’t teach only road signs. We even show films on topics like drunken driving, and discuss it in the class.” Besides teaching the technicalities of driving, Parimoo says, “We take care of the human factors too. So issues like road rage are regularly addressed in the class.”

Instructor Kusum Lata notes, “Often women learners ask questions like, what should I do when a driver repeatedly honks from behind? They often feel men drivers do that to confuse them. It might not be true, but that is a mindset and we have to address it.”

Besides the Sarai Kale Khan centre, started in end-2006, Maruti Udyog has one at Loni for the last eight years. Parimoo states, “We have so far trained over four lakh people there.” While light motor vehicle learners are more numerous at the Kale Khan unit, the Loni unit gets more applicants for commercial driving. “Besides, we regularly test the skills of heavy vehicle drivers applying for jobs in logistics companies. Also, we conduct the refresher course for commercial drivers, now mandatory for those applying for license renewal.”

IDTR is also the only agency training DTC and Blueline bus drivers for the Bus Rapid Transit corridor. “There is a separate teaching module for the BRT operators. They need to know where to stop so that both the entry and the exit doors of the bus match those of the shades. Also, we teach them about single lane driving,” elaborates Arun Lakshman, in charge of the Loni centre.

Elaborating on the teaching module, Lakshman mentions screening short films on accidents. The future highway drivers are also taught about HIV/AIDS. “We also tell them where to go for a test,” he explains.

The Loni centre has only one woman instructor and Lakshman jokingly adds, “We send her to the most unruly class. With a woman around, they immediately behave. This is also a mindset.”

ITDR doesn’t help learners acquire a driving license. Parimoo reasons, “Perhaps that is why the neighbourhood driving schools are thriving. Maruti is not dependent on ITDRs for money generation. Our motto is road safety and we don’t want to attract touts.” ITDR has 18 such centres across India and “will have 18-20 more by the year-end.”

While an individual learner’s programme starts at Rs.3,200 for a month, the commercial driving course is for Rs.6500 for 45 days.

As many as 50 per cent of the learners at the ITDRs are women. Pointing at this trend are a host of women learners across various age groups at the ITDR’s Sarai Kale Khan centre. A visit to the centre in the morning hours reveals not a single male learner. “No this is not strictly an hour for women learners,” laughs Naresh Kush, the centre In-charge. “In the coming summer holidays, you will see more women learners.”

The centre also has two women instructors.

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