A safety document subjecting locally assembled and manufactured vehicles to inspection before they are on the road was open to public comment a fortnight ago.

The standard aims to subject all vehicles to meet the criteria for proper routine checks for the function of speed, oil pressure, battery and water level before registration. Vehicle information documents are to be provided upon an annual inspection.

Imported cars must have certificates from the exporter country, while locally manufactured ones should be documented by the authorized body.

"Document verification is one mechanism of checking the standards," said Yilma Mengistu, standard development director at the Institute. According to him, uniformity aims to address the vehicle's safety concerns related to hazard warning systems, fuel tanks, and tires.

There are 1.3 million vehicles on the roads across the country, according to the data from the Ministry of Transport & Logistics.

Under Mesert Bekele (PhD), the Ethiopian Standard Institute had established a technical committee with 23 members involved in making the standard safety document that was tabled for discussion at Elilly Hotel.

According to Yilma, the standard will be approved by the end of the fiscal year after addressing the issues raised by participants.

The Institute has over 12,000 standard documents serving different purposes. It had set measures for inspection centres to equip their facility with human labour, materials and parking spaces two years ago.

The draft was initiated by the Road Safety & Insurance Fund Administration Agency, which was formed a year ago following the merger of the National Road Safety Council Office, the Insurance Fund Service, and two directorates under the Federal Transport Authority. The Institute has set over 300 mandatory standards related to safety issues.

Representing the Addis Abeba Taxi Owners' Associations, Nuredin Etamo was one of the participants in the meeting. It was formed in 2008 with 13 associations and 4,000 vehicles under its fleet.

He questions the practicality as the standard concerning spare parts should have been put forth before the vehicles.

"That should be prioritised," he said.

There are over 50 inspection centres licensed by the Authority to check the 650,000 vehicles registered under the City Administration.

The recent report from Addis Abeba Driver & Vehicle Licensing Authority revealed that only 48pc passed the annual inspection out of the total vehicles where, almost a quarter of which do not make it to the centre.