Buying new vehicle? No smart card for you, just a booklet

People buying new vehicles in the coming weeks will be issued a paper booklet as registration certificate instead of a smart card.

With the transport department's contract with private vendors ending on November 30, authorities on Friday asked vendors to hand over the data to the respective Regional Transport Offices (RTOs).

"A fresh tender will be floated to appoint a private vendor for the job," said an official.

In June, the contract had expired, but an extension was given. However, from December 1, no smart cards will be made available at any of the RTOs across Maharashtra.

"We are going back in time. On one hand, we talk about having smart cities in India, and on the other, we are discarding smart cards, even if temporarily," said Roy Jacob, a resident of Ghatkopar.

Transport officials maintained that paper booklets will be issue only for a month, but also said there is a possibility that it may take three to six months as the tendering process takes a lot of time.

Once the bids are awarded, people who have been issued a paper booklet can get it converted to a smart card, but this will involve another set of visits to the RTO, all of which are already short-staffed and overloaded with work.
On an average, around 475 vehicles are registered daily, or close to 14,000 cars every month, in Mumbai alone.