On January 6, Abdulkhakim Eshmuratov, the head of the Senate Committee on Judicial and Legal Affairs and Anti-Corruption, sent a formal inquiry regarding the issues with licensing driving schools in Surkhandarya. Due to the lack of licensed driving schools in the region, residents had been forced to travel to the neighboring Kashkadarya region to take their driving tests.
In response to the Senate's request, the Road Traffic Safety Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) provided a reply. On January 7, the Service accepted applications from 14 driving schools of the "Vatanparvar" organization through an electronic system.
These applications were processed, and the issue of licensing was successfully addressed. On January 16, licenses were granted to the Muzrabad district sports-technical training club of the "Vatanparvar" organization.
On January 17, driving schools in the Denau district and sports-technical training clubs in the Uzun district also received licenses. Other driving schools are similarly in the process of obtaining licenses.
Additionally, construction work is underway on a plot of land in Surkhandarya, where an entrepreneur is building an examination center and a driving track.
Once construction is completed and the facility is operational, driving tests for obtaining driver's licenses will be conducted in accordance with legal requirements, as stated in the Ministry of Internal Affairs' response.
Licensing of driving schools
In February 2022, Shavkat Mirziyoyev instructed that the function of licensing driving schools be transferred from the State Inspectorate for Supervision of Education Quality to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. A year later, in February 2023, the president approved the corresponding amendments to the legislation.
Before this, the Cabinet of Ministers approved a system for ranking driving schools, which is based on the qualifications of instructors and the driving performance of graduates (including accident rates). The government also set requirements for the training schedules of driving schools and the vehicles used for testing.
In August 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers defined the licensing procedure for driving schools, stating that the Ministry of Internal Affairs would review applications within 15 working days, as opposed to the previous 9. In winter 2024, the Ministry of Internal Affairs introduced new requirements for training and testing grounds.
