Driving Restrictions in Green, Orange and Red Zone: Since the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus in the country has been extended for another two weeks keeping in mind the rapidly increasing positive cases, there are certain restrictions that have been released by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The government officials are offering ease in restrictions only after recognizing the pattern in the spreading of the disease and how the citizens can be allowed to perform some basic utility runs and other essential things.
The government is risk profiling districts based on the increasing number of positive COVID-19 cases and all the districts have been categorized under three zones namely red, orange and green. The third iteration of the nationwide lockdown that has been extended for two weeks now allows the movement of vehicles in all the three different zones including the private vehicles as well though there are certain rules to be followed by the citizens considering the zones they are presently residing in.
Lockdown 3.0: Driving Restrictions
Green Zone | Orange Zone | Red Zone
In the red zones, the movement of individual citizens, as well as vehicles, are permitted but with certain restrictions since the red zone has been classified as the one registering almost double-positive COVID-19 cases every single day.
For the four-wheelers, the driver along with up to only two passengers, are allowed for the movement in the area while the two-wheeler restrictions only allow a single rider and no pillion rider for movement at any point of time. These relaxations are not applicable in the containment zones which are the new hotspots of the spread of the coronavirus. No one can go in or out of the containment zones even after the government has allowed certain movement in the Lockdown 3.0 phase.
In the orange ones, the private vehicles are allowed to move for some activities though the four-wheeler rules now allow only two passengers as well as a driver as the new maximum occupancy. The two-wheeler restrictions allow a rider and a pillion rider in the orange zones.
There are no restrictions for the private vehicles in the green zones which have not recorded a single COVID-19 positive case from the past few days.
Coming to the other rules to be followed by the private transport, there is a strict no movement policy from 7 pm to 7 am and the state government has announced a curfew in the said time under the Section 144 of CrPC (Criminal Procedure Code). The non-essential movement from 7 pm to 7 am may lead to the violation of the law and could cause major trouble for the violators.
The government has also established a blanket ban on the interstate movement of the individuals though only medical emergency vehicles are allowed to move. There is no relief in the restrictions imposed on the interstate movement as of yet no matter what zone the individual resides in. All the violators will be held accountable under the Disaster Management Act 2005 and the IPC (Indian Penal Code).
Coming to public transport, the government has not lifted the ban on metro services across the nation. The cycle rickshaws, auto-rickshaws, taxis, cab aggregators and buses are not allowed to move in the red zones. Only the private vehicles are allowed to operate in these zones while going out for essentials or for even attending the offices. The non-operations of the public transport is one of the wisest decisions taken by the government for avoiding the major increase in the positive COVID-19 cases in the containment zones like Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata and more.
In the orange zones, the government has allowed the movement of public transport though under certain rules that are to be made mandatory by the district’s officials. In the green zone, public transport is working with half of the seating capacity in order to maintain social distancing norms.
