Indore: Indore’s over 14 lakh vehicles will start having a slightly different look and their owners will have a greater sense of security about the vehicle from April this year. Reason: the new high security registration plate. Of course, this change will entail some expense to the vehicle owners but the authorities affirm this is money well spent. On one hand the new registration plate will make the vehicle more secure and, on the other hand, help police track vehicle lifters more expeditiously as well as efficiently. HSRPs are tamper-proof and meant to aid law enforcement agencies in tracing vehicles that are involved in crimes.

The state governments are, any way, left with no option but to implement the scheme. For, the Supreme Court has been closely monitoring its implementation. On February 8, the Supreme Court set a deadline of April 30 for implementation of High Security Registration Plate (HSRP) for motor vehicles with a warning that failure by state governments and Union Territories to comply with its order would invite contempt action. Madhya Pradesh government has agreed to implement the scheme by March 31.

The seriousness about the court on this issue can be gauged by its warning. While issuing notice to Andhra Pradesh government for contempt on February 8, the court said it was closing the chapter on the issue of tamper-free high security number plates in vehicles by giving time till April 30 for new vehicle and June 15 for old vehicles. “ By this time the entire process has to be completed.”

Prafulla Joshi, an activist, says the news system, when implemented, would be a boon for messed up traffic in Indore. Joshi, who in an expert on traffic related issues, claimed the system would help trace the vehicles involved in accident cases. Traffic management would also improve as the system would help gauge congestion in any particular area. He, however, cautioned that monitoring the system is a bit technical. It can not succeed unless private experts are roped in.

In pursuance to the SC directives, the transport department has selected a vendor Utsav Link to establish necessary infrastructure for replacing old registration plates.

“The front and rear number plates carrying special bar codes would be linked to computer database. All the information related to any vehicle would be available on just a click,” said regional transport officer, Indore, Pawan Jain.
To begin with, the HSRPs carrying the engine chassis number would be linked with the RC Book. No vehicle would be registered without these plates. Once tampered or damaged, the plates could not be reinstalled. These would be re-fitted only at authorised centres.

The system would also bring uniformity in registration plates. Problem of erratically - in many cases eccentrically— designed or embellished plates would get scraped.

Jain said the HSRP would be fitted in all new vehicles from April 1 onwards. An action plan would be devised for existing vehicles too. Representatives of the vendor company short-listed by the RTO headquarters would meet him shortly to fine tune the new system.

All kinds of vehicles on roads would be required to be fitted with HSRP. The old vehicles too would have to switch to the new system.

The move to introduce the high security registration plates has been under review since 1989. After the Supreme Court criticised the State governments in September last year for the repeated delays in implementation, most of the States floated tenders for the project. The Supreme Court on Friday set a deadline of March 31.

In 2001, the Centre had issued notification regarding new registration plates. The court in subsequent orders repeatedly asked the state governments to implement the scheme. However, governments remained insouciant.
Ten years later, the court passed an order on a PIL filed by All-India Anti-Terrorist Front chairman MS Bitta seeking strict implementation on its earlier direction to introduce tamper-proof number plates. The court felt the existing system is prone to misuse by anti-social elements.

The court had said state governments should take immediate steps. The first deadline was four weeks from
December 2011.

Financial implications: The new system requires replacing existing registration plates with tamper-proof plates in over 14 lakh vehicles, both in individual and commercial categories, in Indore. The overall cost in
the process would be in several crores.

For an individual, the replacement would be available at nominal cost. A pair of registration plates would be sold by the authorised vendor at `98.65 to two-wheeler owners. For three wheelers, the price would be around `118.90, for four- wheelers, `296 and for agriculture vehicles, `118.90. In addition to this, 13% VAT would be levied on registration plates of all types of vehicles.

“ In view of the huge benefits of the new system, cost for individual vehicle owners is not much,” said RTO Pawan Jain. Cumulative cost could be huge as there are around 14 lakh commercial vehicles of various categories in the city at present. “Of these 14 lakh vehicles registered in the Indore, almost 70% are two- wheelers.