Maharashtra may blanket ban fancy registration plates; HSRP to become law

Gajanan Kashikar Published: September 01, 2023, 03:52 PM IST

There is likely to be a blanket ban on fancy registration plates on vehicles, which shows off slang words, such as boss, dada, and bhau, among others in Devanagari and English in Maharashtra as the government has swung into action to make High Security Registration Plates (HSRP) mandatory to all vehicles. In fact, the Motor Vehicle Department of Maharashtra recently commenced bids for contractors who will make tamper-proof HSRP for all vehicles in the state.

The centre made the HSRP compulsory, to curb the theft of vehicles and bring uniformity in their identity marks, across India for the vehicles from April 2019. Hence, manufacturers have to fit these number plates on every new vehicle before delivering them to the owners. Now, all vehicles registered in Maharashtra before April 2019 will have to be fitted with the High Security Registration Plates. It is to be noted that these high security number plates were not compulsory for vehicles registered in Maharashtra before April 2019.

The fancy number plates, on which numbers are written in cursive fonts, different sizes and languages (Devanagari and English), on the vehicles are a tiresome affair for the state's traffic department to decode. Vehicle owners get choice numbers, such as 8055 numerics are used to create BOSS in written language. According to the Motor Vehicle Department, the installation of HSRP on the vehicles will start at the beginning of 2024 and will be concluded by the end of the year.

HSRP is made from a rare aluminum alloy with a 10-digit laser-etched unique serial number. HSRP comes with a retro-reflective film with 'India' as verification lettering, Ashok Chakra hologram, and 'IND' hot-stamped in blue, all making it a tamper-proof against counterfeiting. In addition, there is another registration proof - a chromium-based hologram sticker - pasted on the windshield.

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Price (Ex-Delhi)
Starts Rs 1,30,764
Displacement
499cc
Transmission
5-Speed
Max Power(ps)
27.20
Max Torque(Nm)
41.30
Mileage
-NA-