BENGALURU: The number of vehicles will increase in the coming times. This is because of the targets the state government has given to the transport department and to each of the Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) to achieve this fiscal. "This financial year we have been given a target of Rs 15000 crore to achieve and 50% of the revenue is usually generated from the RTOs in Bengaluru. Each RTO has been given a 10% higher target than that of last year. So to achieve it we are not refusing or holding back any application that comes to us," said a senior transport department official, not wanting to be named.
There are 67 RTOs in Karnataka, of which 12 are in Bengaluru alone. Each of the RTO offices in Bengaluru receives around 150-200 applications per day, while the rest in the state get around 50-80.
The official explained, the highest revenue generating RTOs in Bengaluru are Jayanagar, Koramanagala and Indiranagar. They get a little more applications than the others, around 5-10%. These three RTOs usually generate Rs 1000crore revenue annually. But this year the target has been increased to Rs 1200crore.
“We are aware of the increasing traffic congestion in the City. We also get stranded in traffic. We are also aware that this will lead to a further rise in traffic volume, when there is a need to curtail it and encourage public transport, but we have been directed by the government to increase revenue generation.
Pending dues are also being aggressively collected and cleared from vehicle users to increase revenue,” the official said and added that the three high priority RTOs have also been chosen as model RTOs for digitization of data and going paperless.
According to data, the three RTOs- Jayanagar, Indiranagar and Koramanagala, have over 25 lakh files stacked in each of their offices. The staffers have been directed to digitize all the files, stacked from 1980s to December 2025, before the end of December 2026. To achieve this, the department is now hiring private agencies.
“While a physical file for each application is being created even now in the RTOs, it is also being digitized parallelly on the same day in the three RTOs to reduce work load,” the RTO officials said.