Vehicles to get high-security number plates to deter theft

The transport department is planning to carry out a high-security number plate for the vehicles in Mumbai, from next year, which will protect the theft of automobiles.

Currently, there are approximately three crore vehicles on the road and the Transport Department on Saturday issued a tender of ₹1400 crore to install these number plates on the existing vehicles and on the vehicles that will be registered in the next 10 years.

The registered person with the vehicle will have to bear the cost of the high-security number plates. The cost for these number plates for two-wheelers will be ₹125 to ₹150 and for four-wheelers including heavy vehicles, the cost would be ₹250 to ₹350.

This decision comes under the newly ordered rules carried out by the ministry of road transport and highways on Friday to make it compulsory for the automobile manufacturers to provide vehicles with the number plates that are on road from January 1, 2019.

The central government has checked with the new rules and has added a few more safety features. It said that the number plates shall be stuck to the front and the rear of the vehicle and in four-wheelers, a number plate tag with hologram will be pasted on the windscreen. However, this has raised questions regarding the implementation of this proposal.

The ministry guidelines also mention that the high-security number plates shall be installed via an authorised seller.

If everything goes as per plan, the process of installing the number plates could have started by next year,” informed a Regional Transport Official cited in a Hindustan Times report.

The tender issued by the transport department mentions that an online appointment facility will be provided for the existing vehicles to get the high-security number plates installed and in case of new vehicles, the plates will be installed on dealers’ premises. This decision has been taken to avoid tampering of the number plates.

Since 2007, this is the fourth time that the state has taken an initiative to avoid tampering with number plates. However, the other bids did not work owing to legal battles and changes to the Motor Vehicles Act by the Central government.

The tenders were issued under the monitoring of a 10-member committee formed by the Maharashtra government in March 2017. The transport department informed that the whole process will be monitored by the experts.