RTO office opens in Dehra, SDM gets additional charge

After a long wait, the state government has opened a new Regional Transport Office (RTO) in Dehra town.

The government has issued official orders assigning Dehra Sub-Divisional Magistrate Kulwant Singh the additional charge of the new RTO, making the facility functional.

The government had earlier notified the establishment of the RTO in Dehra — covering the subdivisions of Dehra, Jwalamukhi, Jawali, Indora and Fatehpur — on August 14. However, the office had remained non-operational due to pending appointments.

The office is expected to start functioning by next week. The new RTO office will ease the burden on the Dharamsala RTO office.

The establishment of the Dehra RTO is expected to bring considerable relief to vehicle owners and commuters in the area as they will no longer have to travel to Dharamsala for services such as vehicle registration, permits and securing driving licences.

With this, Kangra district will have three RTO offices. The existing offices are the RTO headquarters and the Flying Squad offices in Dharamsala. Kamlesh Thakur, Dehra MLA and Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu’s wife, said that the opening of the RTO here was an important step towards administrative decentralisation and improved public service delivery in the area.