Get a 'smart' Driving Licence this new year

LUCKNOW: After a long wait of over four years, it seems the ball is all set to roll. So now, set your traffic manners right as the smart card driving licence is soon going to trap all the information about your offences and you'll be penalised accordingly.
Due to be launched as a pilot project in the state capital as a new year gift, this eye-readable plastic card very much like the ATM card, will replace the existing Driving Licence (DL).This new DL will be issued using the `Saarthi' software developed by the NIC for bringing about uniformity in DLs across the country, said a senior official of the transport department.
To start with, only eye-readable information would be there on the plastic card and subsequently by the mid-2009, the second stage would be implemented. A machine readable zone carrying individual information including traffic offences committed, if any, would be there on the micro-processor chip of the smart card, said the official. "This aspect would be added once a case pending in the Lucknow bench of the high court is disposed of. An application to expedite the case has already been filed in the high court,'' the official added.
With regards the pilot project to be introduced in the state capital in January, the official said that a sum of Rs 25 lakh has been sanctioned by the state government and after successful implementation of the project, it would be introduced in 37 other Regional Transport Offices (RTO) of the state which were fully computerised. And the deadline set for the same is March 2009, said the transport official.
Besides that the Union ministry of surface transport, has issued directives for preparation of national as well as state register for feeding all related information including registration of vehicles and driving licenses issued by the states. "This register will have to be mandatorily maintained by all the states on the basis of two softwares -- `Vaahan' (for high security registration plates) and `Saarthi' and this would come in handy in the event of any offence registered against a vehicle,'' the official said adding that the information in the two registers would be accessible by the police, intelligence, insurance, income tax and obviously the transport departments. In this connection, the Union government, in principle, has decided to extend technical support to the state for an year, the official further said.
For computerisation of the remaining 34 RTO offices, letters to the district magistrates concerned has already been issued by the department for allotment of land for construction of permanent offices. "Since a budgetary provision for the same is in place, the construction of buildings would be completed on war footing after the land is made available for the district authorities,'' said the official. He further said that the state government has fixed the target of computerisation of all the RTO offices by the end of the next year and once this task was accomplished, all information would be there on the click of the mouse as all the regional transport offices would be online.