Lack of coordination between two government departments has resulted in undue delay in supply of the mandatory High Security Registration Plates (HSRP) for motor vehicles in the district.
The new registration number plates were officially launched in the city by Police Commissioner B. Shivadhar Reddy at a programme organised by the APSRTC on January 25. There is no supply of new number plates ever since. Buyers of new cars, two-wheelers and other vehicles are at a loss to understand the reason behind the delay.
The government has entrusted the job of manufacturing of the new registration number plates to a private company.
It has, however, been decided that the manufacturing should be done only at RTC depots and affixing of the number plates at places designated by the Transport Department under the supervision of Motor Transport officials. “A common agreement for making of the number plates at RTC premises for all the 22 districts is yet to be made. Even in Hyderabad, the number plates are not being made on the RTC premises. The affixing of the number plates, however, has to be done at the Transport Department premises under the supervision of Motor Vehicle officials,” Officer on Special Duty (HSRP) of RTC, Hyderabad, Srinivas told The Hindu. “Initially, it was thought that the embossing on the number plates could be done at a private place but later the government wanted that it should be done from RTC premises only. Right now, there is no hindrance to the number plate making operations from private premises,” Mr. Srinivas said.
“We have provided open space at the Gajuwaka Depot to M/s Link Autotech Pvt. Ltd. to set up their unit. They have, however, said that they would do it from a readily available unit at Autonagar in the city, pending erection of their manufacturing unit at the RTC depot,” RTC Regional Manager Y. Jagadeesh Babu said.
“We have initially rejected the proposal of Link Autotech to manufacture the number plates at Autonagar as we had specific instructions from our (Transport) Commissioner that the number plate manufacturing units should be located on RTC premises only,” Deputy Transport Commissioner M. Prabhu Raj Kumar said.
“We have, however, received fresh instructions from our Joint Commissioner a few days ago relaxing the rule temporarily. I have sent the proceedings, in this regard, to the RTC officials concerned. This would continue as a ‘stop gap’ arrangement until further orders,” he said.
Vehicle owners can now breathe easy as they can expect the new registration plates very soon.
