11th hour rush to fix HSRPs has lakhs of motorists in trouble

AHMEDABAD: After the Supreme Court’s order to install high-security registration plates (HSRPs) on vehicles, the Gujarat transport department clarified that all vehicles must have HSRPs before January 15, 2018. The department will fine vehicle owners who fail to comply Rs 500. The state government made it compulsory in November 2012 for all new vehicles to have HSRPs, buthe vehicles registered before that were exempt.Now that the department has made it mandatory for all vehicles, owners of old vehicle are also rushing to get HSRPs before January 15, and it has caused havoc in Ahmedabad.
With barely 13 days left, the transport department issued a list of dealers who will help owners of old vehicle to change their number plates, stating everyone needn’t come to the RTO. The department issued an advertisement with a list of such dealers, but the ground reality is totally different. Despite the advertisement, there is a huge rush at RTOs.
The list of dealers is at http://www.hsrpgujarat.com. According to the website, 38 dealers in Ahmedabad district can install HSRPs. However, when IamGujarat.com spoke to a few dealers, many denied providing such services.
Harun Mirza, who supervises HSRP installations at Landmark Honda on SG Highway, said that though the department issued an advertisement, dealers haven’t received an official letter from it. When he spoke to the officials concerned, he was told that a team would visit them in 3-4 days train staff on preparing receipts, registration etc. Only after that will dealers will be able to assist motorists. Mirza said their showroom gets around 100 calls about HSRPs for old vehicles every day. They are now telling callers to visit them next week. The cases of Ashapura Honda at Sanand and Shraddha Motors at Shyamal Crossroads are similar.
Dealers installing HSRPs on old vehicles are witnessing an unprecedented rush. An employee at Punjab Honda, Gurukul, said, “Earlier, hardly any customers were getting the their plates changed. Now, every day we are installing 100-120 number plates. We are overloaded and are now giving customers appointments for 3-4 days later. Additionally, around 2,500-3,000 vehicles were sold during the festive season. So we also have to install those plates too, which has further delayed installation of HSRPs.”
The machine and material to make the HSRPs are provided by the department. Dealers have one or two staffers making HSRPs at their workshops. A maximum of 200-300 number plates can be installed a day. The number of customers is so large compared to the number of such dealers that it is likely that many people will miss the deadline.
Ownerss of old vehicles also have other problems. To get HSRPs installed, the RC book smart card is mandatory. Those who do not have smart card have to go the the RTO for backlog entry, for which vehicle insurance is mandatory. This adds to the hassles of such vehicle owners.
In Ahmedabad, 27 lakh vehicles have old number plates. If the Ahmedabad RTO works for 24 hours, it won’t be able to install more than 6,000 HSRPs a day, which means only 84,000 vehicles will get HSRPs before the deadline. We tried to contact transport commission R M Jadhav on his office phone, but he was unavailable.