Government is set to get tough to ensure road worthiness of commercial vehicles, including public transport buses, plying on the roads. Taking a serious view of the poor condition of many of the vehicles plying on the roads, the Government is set to come out with new automated inspection and maintenance (I&M) programmes to test the vehicles while involving private players for setting up testing facilities. According to sources, the National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRIP) has prepared the broad contours of the new mechanism and will soon submit a study report on the matter. Various inspection and maintenance models, including those in force abroad, have been studied for the purpose. The sources said the central government would frame the overall guidelines for the new testing centers, including defining the procedure for inspection and maintenance, stipulating the testing machinery and the minimum size of the testing centers. "There would be dedicated lanes for various kinds of vehicles like light motor vehicle or heavy motor vehicle. The idea is to have a system wherein various kinds of inspection and maintenance tests are conducted on the these dedicated lanes according to the type of the vehicle,' the sources said. The projects would initially receive financial support from the Central government, though the idea is to make each of them self sustainable on the long run. Poor maintenance of commercial vehicles is a major cause of accidents and rising fatalities on the Indian roads. Current vehicle inspection system is considered to be inadequate and weak, prone to various kinds of malpractices considering the high level of human interface in the whole system. Currently, commercial vehicles require fitness certificates to ply on the roads.