Hyderabad: The Centre is expected to issue a notification before the Appointed Day on June 2, 2014, clearing the air over the issue of vehicle registration numbers. Vehicle owners would have to change their registration number plates post the official split, according to the guidelines spelled out in the notification.
The bifurcation of the state has created a lot of confusion regarding vehicle registrations and a change in the already existing ones. Vehicle registration numbers are constituted by the state code, district Regional Transport Office code, series code and final numbers. For instance, AP 10 AB 0001 has four parts. After the split, the series code and final number is expected to remain the same for vehicles, while the state code, in all likelihood, would change from AP to TG in Telangana. Questions, however, remain about the district RTO code.
Currently, district RTO codes are arranged alphabetically in the state. For instance, AP 01 corresponds to Adilabad and AP 02 corresponds to Anantapur. The Centre could ask the two states to arrange district RTO codes alphabetically again in their respective areas and issue new codes accordingly or choose to retain existing codes. In the first scenario, Adilabad district RTO code would be TG 01 and that for Anantapur would be AP 01. In the second scenario, Adilabad would be TG 01 and Anantapur would AP 02.
S.A.V. Prasada Rao, joint transport commissioner, said, “We have sent a proposal that the second scenario be preferred because if there is alphabetical arrangement again in the two states respectively, there are chances of duplication.”
Senior officials also say that a certain grace period would be given to vehicle owners to change the numbers.
“There would be time of a few months to about a year or so for people to change numbers. We have to wait and see what is given in the notification,” a senior transport official said.
