Number plates in Punjab to have uniform format

Other reforms include replacement of registration book with automotive cards

LAHORE: The government will uniformalise the format of vehicle number plates across the province in the second phase of the Dealers’ Vehicles Registration System, Special Monitoring Unit Senior Member Salman Sufi told The Express Tribune on Sunday.

He said the decision had been taken at a meeting held to discuss the SMU’s motor and vehicle reforms. He said it was chaired by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. Others who attended the meeting were the ministers for Law and Excise and Taxation (E&T) and secretaries of Law, E&T, Information and Finance, director generals of the E&T and the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) and the chairman of the chief minister’s taskforce for information and culture.



Sufi told The Express Tribune that reforms under consideration included issuance of universal licence plates and replacement of the registration book with an automotive registration card.

He said the idea was to have uniform format of licence plates across the province. Currently, he said, the districts could have their own format for the licence plates. He said the new licence plates would be auto-readable. Cameras to be installed on roads across the province under the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) could automatically read the plates when needed. He said violations of traffic laws would be detected through these cameras. Notices for payment of fines would be sent to the violators at their home addresses, he added.

Sufi said issuance of universal licence plates would begin from January 2017. He said old licence plates would gradually be replaced with those of the new format with assistance of authorised dealers.

Under the DVRS system, the government has transferred the responsibility of registering vehicles and issuing licence plates to authorised dealers. The E&T Department will provide its official licence plates to these dealers.

For the purpose, the government has developed a DVRS software. Eligible dealers can obtain licences to use the software from the E&T Department.



Under the new system, customers will get vehicle registration plates and related documents from dealers. They will submit their particulars to the dealers who would send them to the E&T Department for verification and issuance of a registration book.

Under the new system, vehicle number plates will be issued in the name of the buyer and not for a vehicle.

Sufi said he hoped that the new system would help eliminate use of unauthorised and untraceable number plates. This will be immensely beneficial in countering terrorist and criminal activities, he said.

He said police investigation had shown that the car driven by the kidnappers of the son of the Sindh High Court chief justice was carrying a fake number plate. He said such incidents highlighted the urgent need to revamp the vehicle registration system along modern lines.

He said with the implementation of the new system the Punjab would become the first province to have introduced such reforms in its vehicle registration system.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2016.