Thiruvananthapuram: The government is considering making yellow colour mandatory for driving school vehicles in the state. A decision on this will be taken in the State Transport Authority (STA) meeting on July 3.

There are currently 30,000 vehicles across 6,000 driving schools in the state. The Motor Vehicles Department officials argue that mandating yellow colour will enhance road safety by making these vehicles easily recognizable to other drivers. Presently, drivers can identify a driving school vehicle by looking for 'L' (learners) board and the school's name written on the vehicle.

However, if the new changes are adopted, driving schools will face additional financial burdens due to the cost of repainting vehicles. They are already embroiled in a dispute with the government over reforms in driving tests. A protest led by CITU is also ongoing in front of the secretariat against the policies adopted by the government under the new Transport Minister K B Ganesh Kumar.

Meanwhile, the mandatory yellow colour for heavy vehicles such as tipper lorries was recently withdrawn, and the Motor Vehicles Department has not commented on this change.

At the same time, CITU has demanded the government issue state permits for auto-rickshaws to operate statewide. Currently, they are restricted to their respective districts.