
CHANDIGARH: Every day around 8,000 to 10,000 Registration Certificates (RCs) and Driving Licenses (DLs) are issued across Punjab.
However, for the last few months, the smart cards of the RCs and DLs have not been issued to the vehicle owners and more than 2.5 lakh motorists are awaiting the same.
Sources said that last year, the private company M/S Smart Chip Private Limited which was printing the smart cards of RCs and DLs gave a notice to the state government.
It had left the project in October or November, following issues related to the cost of printing the RCs and DLs.
A senior functionary of the department said that they are in talks with the National Informatics Centre Services Inc (NICSI) and one another firm in this regard.
A new firm which was assigned the job in September this year, has not yet started the work.
It is not clear whether the department had ensured that the Smart Chip firm had enough stock of smart cards required for three months when it left the project.
When contacted, the Additional Chief Secretary (Transport) DK Tewari said that the officials are working on the issue, and it will be sorted out shortly by next week. He also added that printing will commence soon.
Till then, instructions issued to the police not to challan commuters who do not have smart card RCs or DLs and the downloaded RCs and DLs from DigiLocker or mParivahan application should be considered as valid.
In March 2024, Punjab Transport Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar issued the contract termination notice to Smart Chip Pvt Ltd over failure to issue RCs and DLs within the stipulated time frame. There were delays in the printing of the documents.
There was a pendency of 75,000 RCs and DLs due to delay is printing of smart cards.
Last May, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had asked the state transport department to ensure zero pendency of the driving licenses and registration certificate of vehicles by June 15.