Hyderabad: The High Security Number Plates project is scheduled to begin 10 days from now as per the transport minister’s announcement. The project is likely to start in around three weeks, says the implementing agency, the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation.
After several delays, the Rs 2,000-crore project will finally be implemented in the state, but insiders say that around 1 crore motor vehicle users in the state will have to pay an additional Rs 574 crore for the new tamper-proof number plates, which have been made mandatory from December 1 for all new vehicles.
The government is yet to issue a notification following which it will take nine working days to implement the project. APSRTC officials thus believe that the project can start at the earliest by the first week of December if the notification is issued this week.
Those purchasing new vehicles will have to go to RTO offices and also to any of the existing 123 authorised registration offices in the city to get the new number plates.
The consortium will set up HSNP counters at all these offices, and the plates will be issued at the counters.Transport minister Botsa Satyanarayana had announced the launch date of the project earlier this month.
APSRTC had entered into an agreement with the consortium comprising Utsav Safety System and Linkpoint Infrastructure months back and the prices range from Rs 220 to Rs 240.
The tenders were canceled thrice due to allegations of corruption.
The project has been mandated by the Supreme Court in view of national security concerns and public safety to prevent usage of fake number plates that is the modus operandi of criminals and robbers.
There are a total of 1.5 crore vehicles in the state which will be taken up in the second phase after about two years. To begin with, HSNPs will be fixed on new vehicles and they will be made mandatory for all other vehicles in the second phase of implementation of the project.
