Rafique Aziz
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: In an administrative development, the Department of Transport (DoT) and the Department of Post (DoP) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the distribution of Driving License (DL) and Registration Certificate (RC) to the vehicle-owners (citizens), at the doorstep, dispatched through three designated centres in the state. The MoU was signed in August 2023 and the implementation of the new system is in effect from this September.
Maharashtra comprises six revenue divisions covering 36 districts. There are 50 regional and deputy regional transport offices (RTO) in all over the state. Under the Ease of Doing Business, the Transport Department has fixed three centres - Aurangabad, Mumbai and Nagpur - for printing of smart cards for DL and RC using advanced technology production. The contract of printing has been awarded to Manipal Technologies Limited (MTL, Karnataka). The printing vehicle documents will
will be done at these three centres. The HPOs of these three centres will be responsible for the distribution of DL and RC in the jurisdiction of all 50 RTOs.
According to sources, “ The responsibility of distributing documents in the jurisdiction of 15-17 RTOs will fall on each HPO. The printing task will continue 24x7. The target is to print 75,000 (75K) smart cards daily through these three centres. Aurangabad, Mumbai, and Nagpur RTO offices will distribute the documents through HPOs.
RTO and Post Office officials meet
According to sources, “ Earlier, the RTO office of each district would print the vehicle documents (Smart Cards) at their level and deliver them through the HPO in their respective jurisdiction. Now, the printing has been centralised at three centres. The HPO, RTO and Private Company officials held a meeting to discuss the implementation plan. However, the contractor is waiting for supply of adequate data of each registered vehicle from National Informatics Centre (NIC) to kickstart the work. On other hand, the postal officials have also geared up to order printed envelopes (by name of each district) for the task.”
When contacted the senior postmaster (HPO) Mohammed Shakeel Shaikh refused to comment saying it will be premature to speak on it. The efforts to contact the Regional Transport Officer Vijay Katole also proved futile as he was not available to comment and elaborate on the new smart cards distribution plan.
Features
According to RTO sources, the new smart cards will have laser engraving and high quality printing of vehicle-owner details. It will be chip-free smart cards and its durability is being enhanced using advanced technologies and resistance against heat damage will be outstanding. The charges will also be affordable.