Date:05/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/05/stories/2008070552100200.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Tirupati

Maruti opens driving school

Special Correspondent

Sophisticated car simulator commissioned

– Photo: K.V. Poornachandra Kumar

At the wheel: A learner getting some tips from the driving school instructor in Tirupati on Friday.

TIRUPATI: Safe driving on our roads today requires a higher degree of confidence and competence than ever before, the reasons obviously being: bad roads, poor traffic planning, untrained drivers and more and more vehicles rolling out of factories.

It is to address this problem that the Maruti Driving School (MDS) was established by its flagship company—Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. in order to provide the best motor driving training. One such driving school, first of its kind in the entire Rayalaseema area was commissioned on Friday at the ‘Koundanya Cars’, Maruti’s authorised service centre in Tirupati. Minister for Transport K. Lakshminarayana formally inaugurated the MDS.

The purpose is to impart not just better driving skills but also better awareness towards overall road safety, said a company’s functionary at the inaugural. A state-of-the-art French-made car ‘simulator’ was also formally commissioned at the school by the TTD Trust Board Chairman B. Karunakar Reddy.

Some of the major topics covered in the training programme spanning 20 hours (learners’ course) and 8 hours (advanced course) include: driving skills, traffic education, emergency handling techniques, tips on fuel-saving measures, basic maintenance of the vehicle, attitudinal test and so on. “With the help of a sophisticated simulator, our professional and trained faculty would impart driving skills to the learners to match world standards,” said G. Manohar and G. Srinivasa Murthy- directors of the Koundinya Cars. Nitin Kumar, assistant manager (south zone), explained the salient features of the school.