MINSK, 7 April (BelTA) – The bill on amending the law on road traffic passed the first reading at a meeting of the fifth session of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus of the seventh convocation on 7 April, BelTA has learned.
The bill was submitted to the House of Representatives by the Council of Ministers on 2 August 2018. The bill is aimed at improving road traffic safety and sets forth several amendments on regulation law enforcement practices and implementation of the provisions of other legal regulations, including on entrepreneurship development.
For example, the bill introduces the procedure of issuing international driver's licenses in line with the Convention on Road Traffic of 1968. Russia's citizens will retain their right to drive their vehicles using their national driver's license until its expiration date. The bill also offers the opportunity to take qualifications exams and obtain the right to drive a vehicle only with automatic transmission, which is easier that manual transmission.
Under the bill, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is authorized to determine road sections that cannot be used for driving training, which eliminates the need for economic entities to harmonize routes for practical driving training with the State Traffic Inspectorate.
The bill also lifts control over the procedures for state vehicle inspection at inspection stations and training, retraining, and advanced training services for drivers and driving teachers. The bill defines parameters, control, and principles of road traffic management, clarifies the term of transportation planning by means of defining the key goal – balance between safety and effectiveness of road traffic.
Chairman of the Industry, Fuel and Energy Complex, Transport, and Communications Commission of the House of Representatives Igor Komarovsky spoke at length about road traffic safety. “We should focus on a section of provisions concerning transportation planning, which creates an entire network, starting from road traffic parameters and control. Another important aspect is that these functions will be performed by road owners, that is, organizations affiliated with the Belarusian Transport and Communications Ministry or accountable to local government authorities. In fact, this transportation planning system lays the groundwork for introducing intelligent transportation systems in the country in the future,” he explained.
Photos by Andrei Pokumeiko
