The Centre has made it clear that it was "not prudent" to allow a third person to travel on a two-wheeler as the same was prohibited under the law and motorcycles or scooters were universally designed to carry only two people.

This was Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari's response to a plea by CPI(M) MP Elamaram Kareem requesting that children upto to the age of 10 years be allowed to travel as a third person on two-wheelers on following necessary safety measures, like wearing helmets.

Denying the request, Gadkari in a letter dated May 31 has said, "...under the Central Motor Vehicles Act 1988, no driver of a two-wheeler can carry more than one person.

"Therefore, from the safety angle of riders, it would not be prudent to allow more than one person in addition to the driver to be carried thereon." The Union Minister also said that every two-wheeler "is universally designed and constructed to carry one person in addition to the driver." This response comes even as the ruling LDF government in Kerala was mulling whether to approach the Centre to amend the Motor Vehicles Act to a limited extent for permitting one child to travel with parents on a two-wheeler as being demanded by many in the southern state.

Such a demand was widely raised in the state in the wake of the launch of the government's Safe Kerala project under which 726 artificial cameras have been put up across the state to automatically identify traffic violations.

Kareem, in his letter dated May 1 sent to Gadkari, had said that two-wheelers were popular among a large section of the country's citizens who use it to travel for their daily needs.

He had also said that not everyone can afford to buy cars.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.