Ahmedabad: Securing a driving test slot at the regional transport office (RTO) in Surendranagar or Bardoli has become an exercise in patience for applicants who must wait as long as five months. But they would not have it any other way because the reward is a comparitively much easier driving test. These two RTOs do not have automated driving test tracks, which means applicants are evaluated by an inspector on basic driving skills rather than being required to complete box parking, ramp driving, reverse-S manoeuvres, and figure-eight tests monitored through AI.“As a result, around 30% of the applicants in Bardoli and Surendranagar are from Ahmedabad, Rajkot and other parts of the state, which have bigger RTOs with automated test tracks and AI-enabled monitoring,” said a transport department official.Under the Motor Vehicles Act, applicants are free to apply for driving licences at any RTO in the state. “Of the state’s 33 RTOs, only Surendranagar and Bardoli lack automated tracks, as both operate out of rented premises,” said a senior RTO official. The general perception is that getting through the test is easier at these two places.“Such is the demand that licence applicants often stay awake past midnight to secure a slot at the two smaller RTOs. Around 70 slots are snapped up almost immediately after they are released online. Anybody who applies can count on getting a licence unless they are spectacularly bad at driving,” he said. The transport department’s standard operating procedure caps appointments at 70 per day for light motor vehicles and 140 for two-wheelers at each of the two RTOs.“The limited daily quota, combined with demand spilling over from other districts, has left applicants waiting up to five months for an appointment at the two smaller RTOs,” a senior RTO official said.In contrast, Ahmedabad RTO near Subhash Bridge issues about 350 appointments a day and Ahmedabad East RTO at Vastral, about 250, sources said. In both these RTOs, a date for driving test can be secured in a fortnight.A businessman from Ghatlodia recounted how his wife obtained her licence from Bardoli RTO after failing the test in Ahmedabad. “Someone suggested Bardoli. We cancelled the Ahmedabad RTO re-application and applied there after the mandatory one-month cooling period. Getting a slot was no trouble, thanks to a local agent,” he said.Figures from RTOs with automated tracks help explain why many applicants favour Surendranagar and Bardoli. Although the LMV test failure rate fell to 45% in 2025 from nearly 55% in the previous two years, about 80% of those who failed could not clear the parallel parking stage. That too, despite nearly 90% of vehicles brought in for testing being equipped with parking sensors or reverse cameras.Although the automated driving test tracks were introduced at Gujarat’s RTOs to raise road-safety standards, they are pushing a growing number of licence seekers towards the two smaller centres where testing still depends on human evaluation.
