RTO cracks down on vehicles without High Security Registration Plates

Surat: The Regional Transport Office (RTO) has swung into action against two-wheeler owners, who are yet to get High Security Registration Plates (HSRP) fitted on their vehicles. The transport office, in the last two days, has apprehended around 150 offenders driving two-wheelers without HSRP from different parts of the city. The vehicle owners had fitted fancy number plates on the two-wheelers.

Official sources said there are over 20,000 vehicle owners who have not fitted HSRP on their vehicles. It is a routine practice at the transport office that the vehicle owners have to take online appointment from the Vahan portal for the HSRP fitting. Once the appointment is scheduled, the vehicle owners have to come at RTO in Pal for fitting of HSRP plates.

In February, the transport office had appointed around 13 automobile dealers as 'deemed RTO' for fitting HSRPs. The vehicle owners, who were complaining about the long queues and extended waiting period for online appointment, were asked to fit their HSRPs from these dealers.

"There is a general tendency among the vehicle users that they do not want to wait in long queues for fitting the HSRP plate. However, they prefer to fit number plates from outside. Despite appointing deemed RTOs, many vehicle owners are still plying on roads without HSRPs," said an official at RTO.

At present, the city's vehicle population has crossed 27 lakh mark. Every month around 10,000 two-wheelers and every three months 10,000 cars are registered with the RTO.

RTO inspector, Vijay Chauhan said, "Those caught without HSRPs are fined on the spot and served notices. If they fail to fit the HSRP, then we may take action of cancelling the registration certificate of the vehicles. The campaign will run for another few days in the city. We want to cover all the 20,000 vehicles plying without HSRPs."