The Transport Department has rolled out a significant and consumer-friendly initiative, enabling the portability of vehicle registration numbers, while this new facility will function much like Mobile Number Portability (MNP), offering vehicle owners the chance to retain their preferred or old registration number for a new vehicle. This new system is expected to provide convenience to vehicle owners while also bolstering the government's vehicle scrap policy.
How the New Facility Works
To avail of this service, a vehicle owner must first sell their old vehicle to an authorized scrap center. After dismantling the vehicle, the scrap center will issue a certificate. If the owner wishes to retain their old registration number,. They must apply to the Transport Department with this scrap certificate. Based on the application, the department will allocate the old vehicle's number to the new vehicle, while a key advantage of this process is that no additional fee will be charged, unlike the previous system for obtaining a desired number.
Previous System for Fancy and VIP Numbers
Previously, if a vehicle owner wanted a number of their choice, they had to select it through MP Online or a vehicle dealer on the Transport Department's website. This incurred a fee ranging from Rs 2,500 to Rs 5,000, while for VIP numbers, owners had to participate in an auction on the website, with the number being allotted to the highest bidder. The new portability feature eliminates the need for this extra fee, provided the number is being ported from an old scrapped vehicle.
Boost to the Vehicle Scrappage Policy
This new facility is set to play a crucial role in promoting the government's Vehicle Scrappage Policy, while announced in the Union Budget 2021-22, this policy aims to remove government and private vehicles older than 15 years, and commercial vehicles older than 20 years, from the roads. While millions of new vehicles have hit the roads in the past decade, the process of removing older vehicles has been slow. This number portability feature will act as an incentive for owners to scrap their old vehicles, benefiting both the environment and road safety.
