Transport Department is working on an initiative to bring in the much awaited high-security number plates for motor vehicles. To begin with, the same would be introduced in Chennai and Coimbatore Circles (Coimbatore, Tirupur and the Nilgiris districts) of the Transport Department in the first phase.
As per the orders of the Supreme Court, the Union Surface Transport Ministry has embarked on an initiative to go in for high-security number plates.
The proposed number plates would have many initiatives to maintain their exclusivity as well as security features (see graphics for details).
The same was introduced on a trial basis at Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi in Kerala and in the second phase it was extended to Delhi, Punjab, Jharkhand and Odisha. Now, the State of Tamil Nadu has decided to implement the high-security number plate on a fast track basis. To begin with Chennai and Coimbatore Circles are taking up the initiative.
The Department has now asked the Regional Transport Offices in both the circles to earmark some space for the firm that has been given the contract to carry out the number plate work. A detailed circular on how to implement this initiative was expected shortly, officials said.
The space would be given on a rental basis. The high-security number plate would help in ensuring security and uniformity. Above all, once these number plates become mandatory, use of fancy letters, unnecessary wordings, use of various sizes of number plates affecting visibility, would stand completely eliminated.
In addition, when the vehicles are stolen, detection of the same would be easy.
Transport Department officials in Coimbatore said that efforts are on to commence the number plate fixing from the second week of July. Initially, the number plates would be only for new vehicles and later it would be extended to all the already registered vehicles, after the systems fall in place properly.
Replacement of the number plate could be done only by the said firm through the RTO office thus making it completely foolproof, the officials added.
Similarly, because of the hot stamping procedure, changes or amendment/alteration to the particulars on the number plate would not be possible, the officials added.
