Issuing vehicle RCs and licenses to get faster in Telangana; transport dept to follow Maharashtra model

Hyderabad: After receiving complaints from motorists about extreme delays in granting vehicle registration certificates (RCs) and driving licenses, the Transport Department has decided to modify its current policy.

A team of officials led by Joint Transport Commissioner (JTC) Chandrashekhar Goud recently visited Maharashtra and studied the policy followed there. A detailed report in this regard was submitted to the State government, which has also reportedly given its nod for its implementation.

9,000-12,000 RCs issued daily

In this regard, the Transport Department is getting ready to implement a centralised system similar to Maharashtra in Telangana. According to reports, the tendering procedure would start within a week or 10 days. If this policy is implemented, motorists will receive cards quickly, and there will be transparency, the officials said.

According to the information provided by the transport department officials, there are 62 RTO offices across the state and around 9,000-12,000 RCs and driving licenses are issued daily. Technical issues are the cause of the actual delay in granting RCs and driver's licenses in the state.

However, motorists are wondering how individuals who approach agents get their RCs and licenses the same day or within a few days.

“There are numerous vendors: one for cartridges, another for ribbons and another for cards. There are separate tenders for this. Delays will occur regardless of who causes them,” said a transport department official on condition of anonymity.

Middlemen’s racket and corruption

Elaborating further, the official said that in Maharashtra, RCs and driving licenses were previously issued from RTO offices. There were widespread allegations of middlemen’s racket and corruption. The situation changed after the implementation of the centralised system. This was noted by a team of state officials who recently visited Maharashtra, he said, and they added that they are issuing between 30,000 to 35,000 RCs and driving licenses there every day.

To avoid the hassle of printing and issuing cards from a single centre, centralised centres have been set up at three RTO offices in Mumbai, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (Aurangabad), and Nagpur. In Telangana, the Transport Department has decided to print only in Hyderabad. In order to restrict access to this central printing facility to vendor staff and transportation department representatives, a decision has been taken to implement an access card system and install CCTV cameras, the official said.