Thiruvananthapuram: Over 8 lakh Driving Licences and Vehicle Registration Cards (RCs) pending in Kerala will be consolidated at the Regional Transport Offices (RTO). It has been announced that SMART PET-G cards pending since November 2023 will be sent to the respective RTO offices.
The Kerala government owes more than Rs 8.3 crore to the Indian Telephone Industries Limited (ITI), Palakkad division for printing the SMART PET-G cards. Printing of the cards was halted due to the arrears owed by the Kerala government. Now, printing has resumed and the cards are being dispatched after the pending amount was approved by the Kerala government.
It is estimated that over 8 lakh vehicle owners (with numbers ranging from KL 1(TVM) to KL 86 (Payyanur)) have not yet received their documents.
Driving Licences were digitized by April 2023, and RCs by October 2023, using the digital security system of SMART PET-G. The government collected Rs 245 from each applicant for sending the RCs and Licences through postal service. However, applicants have not received the documents for the past few months.
RC printing was halted in November 2023. It is estimated that around 10 lakh cards in RC and Driving Licence categories need to be printed by February 2024. The crisis was caused by delays in fund disbursement due to Kerala state’s financial crisis.
Discussion about this post