If you are looking to get yourself a smart card at the Vasai Regional Transport Office (RTO), chances are, you will be given a single-page slip instead. Since October 2015, there is a backlog of around 15,000 smart cards with the State Transport Department yet to renew the contract for printing them, according to Abhay Deshpande, Deputy Superintendent of Police, RTO, Vasai.
The smart card contract, given to a private firm, expired in October last year. The RTO is at the same time facing a shortage of the single-page stationery, and is procuring it from Andheri, Borivali and other RTO circles besides Nagpur, said a senior official who did not wish to be named. “It will take us another month or more to clear the backlog and for things to get streamlined,” said Mr. Deshpande.