MADURAI: The distribution of smart chip enabled Registration Certificate (RC) cards has been delayed for more than ten days across the state due to a technical problem. The office of Commissionerate of Transport and Road Safety said the issue will be resolved in a day or two.
As per norms, all vehicles must operate on roads only after obtaining the RC. Upon applying either for fresh or renewal of old RC, officials will verify and issue the RC. Initially it was a paper RC but in 2015, smart RCs were introduced. In 2020, chip enabled RCs were issued. The card has been designed in such a way, using hologram, that it is impossible to be duplicated.
“Though RTOs have sufficient number of cards in stock, when data is entered in the clip the chip-reader is not able to read it. Due to this, details of the cardholder and vehicle will not show up when the card is scanned on a reader,” said an RTO on condition of anonymity.
Another RTO from the southern district said the problem has never happened earlier. “Depending upon the capacity of the RTO, the number of RCs issued differs. There are more than 90 RTOs in the state and each may issue more than 100 RCs everyday. Due to the problem, an average of 5,000 cards could not be issued everyday since the last week of March,” he said.
When contacted, an official from the commissionerate of Transport and Road Safety in Chennai said the problem was with the National Informatics Centre.
“Except for Tamil Nadu, no other southern state issues chip-enabled RCs. So when they deleted some details in the software, the issue popped up. We have alerted the NIC about the issue and they are sorting it out. In a day or two, the issue will be resolved,” he said.