Renewal of driving licence will not be a simple task any longer after the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) issued a new set of guidelines. The new rules, as per the 2019 Motor Vehicles Act, came into force at the start of this month.
Validity of a driving licence at present is 20 years and those who want to renew it can apply one year before its date of expiry. If the licence is renewed within one year from the date of expiry, then the applicants need to pay only the normal fee of Rs 200.
One year after the expiry date, Rs 1,100 will be charged as fine for every year. Moreover, the applicants will be asked to attend licence competency test, for which Rs 50 should be paid as session fee and Rs 300 as learner’s fee. If a person fails in the competency test, he/she can appear for it only after seven days, but by paying Rs 300 per attempt.
The validity of the renewed licence will also be reduced to a maximum of 10 years, based on age.
Those who are below 30 will get validity up to the age of 40 while those in the 30-50 age group will get only 10-year validity. Those in the 50-55 age group will have validity only till 60. After 55, licence will be renewed only for five years.
“Those who want to renew licence should do it before the expiry date. Otherwise, the licence won’t have any validity till it’s renewed and a fine will be imposed for unauthorised use of vehicles without licence,” said a statement issued by the Deputy Transport Commissioner’s office.
Earlier, a grace period of 30 days used to be given to the holder after the expiry date to renew the licence and fine was imposed only after that.
Competency test in place
No more grace period after licence expiry
Applications for renewal can be filed one year before expiry date
Those who want to renew licence one year after the expiry will have to attend a competency test