BENGALURU: Even as the deadline for the installation of High-Security Registration Plates (HSRP) in vehicles registered prior to April 2019, nears (November 17), the public response remains lukewarm. Of the 2 crore old vehicles, only 1.75 lakh (less than 10 per cent) have gotten their plates updated.
Senior transport officials said that the state government is likely to extend the deadline for HSRP installation and give wide publicity of the same, to encourage people to install it.
Speaking to TNIE, a senior transport official said, “The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has mandated affixation of HSRP number plates in old vehicles for various reasons, including the security, and to prevent misuse of vehicles. HSRP number plates cannot be removed once fixed, it has to be broken as they are fixed using revits, thereby eliminating any scope for the exchange of number plates. There are around 2 crore vehicles that were registered in the state before April 1, 2019. All those vehicles which were registered after April 2019 have mandatorily installed HSRP.”
While the state government notification has given a deadline till November 17, for the old vehicles to fall in line, the response is lukewarm. We were planning on wide-scale publicity of the notification to encourage people, but had to temporarily halt it, as some people have taken the matter to court, arguing against permitting only the HSRP manufacturers authorised by the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) to fix the registration plates, the official said and added that with less than a month for the deadline to end, the government may extend the deadline.