Transport Dept to soon restart printing smart RCs, licences
The Transport Department will soon restart the process of printing driving licence (DL) and registration certificate (RC) smart cards.
For the past over three months, the DLs and RCs are not being printed due to the shortage of smart cards. Consequently, the backlog has crossed 3 lakh, causing harassment to the applicants. The worst-affected are those who have to drive outside the state.
Nearly 1.40 crore vehicles are registered in the state and about 8,000 to 10,000 RCs and DLs are issued every day.
The pendency is increasing every day with regional transport authorities (RTAs) and Sub-Divisional Magistrates (SDMs), as after the exit of the vendor, Smart Chip Pvt Ltd, there has been delay in allotting the work of printing the smart cards to a new vendor.
A senior government functionary said the technical bids for procuring the smart cards had been opened and the work to start printing should begin soon. The department has to procure 15 lakh smart cards.
“The department has already hired nearly 140 staff on contract for printing smart cards and conducting the test at the automated driving ranges across the state. We are just waiting for the vendor to provide the smart cards,” said the functionary, adding that instructions had already been issued to the police that the RCs and DLs downloaded from DigiLocker or mParivahan mobile app should be considered as valid and commuters showing these online documents should not be challaned.
Dr Kamal Sohi, member of the National Road Safety Council, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, claimed that over 5 lakh people in Punjab were waiting for DLs and RCs. He said the department had issued the request for proposal (RFP) on February 10 for the selection of an agency to supply smart cards. He questioned the department’s decision to manage critical functions of data personalisation and distribution itself, which was previously managed by a system integrator.
Transport Minister Laljit Bhullar did not respond to calls to get his comments.
