The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) has on Thursday unveiled new efficiencies in its processes, with major changes to the application of reflective number plates and motor vehicle inspections.
For reflective plates, NTSA announced that the entire application and payment process will now be conducted through the eCitizen platform, with full automation eliminating all previous paperwork requirements.
Applicants will only need to provide a coloured copy of the logbook and pictures of the number plates. The process has also been simplified and reduced to just three steps.
To enhance transparency, applicants will be able to track the progress of their requests through the online portal, while SMS notifications will be sent at every stage of application processing.
According to NTSA, all reflective plate applications will now be verified and processed within seven working days.
On motor vehicle inspections, NTSA revealed that both booking and payment have been shifted to the eCitizen platform, with motorists paying an inspection fee of Ksh1,050 after a system invoice is generated.
The authority has also declared the process fully paperless, eliminating the use of Vehicle Inspection Check forms.
Inspectors have instead been issued with digital tablets to aid the process, which will also involve uploading pictures of the vehicles inspected into the system for validation.
NTSA explained that the internal inspection procedures have been reduced from 25 steps to just nine, significantly cutting the time motorists spend at inspection centres to less than 20 minutes.
New safety compliance parameters have also been introduced, including conformity with the Passenger Vehicle Body Construction standard (KS372:2019) and the installation of Maximum Road Speed Limiters (KS2295:2018).
Upon completion of the inspection, results will automatically be updated on the NTSA mobile app for verification by law enforcement.
Motorists whose vehicles fail will have 13 days to fix defects and return for free re-inspection, with motorists being warned that operating a vehicle without a valid inspection certificate remains an offence.
