Tamper Proof Number Plates Announced

In a few months all vehicles in Tamil Nadu will have ‘tamper proof’ High Security Registration (HSR) Plates. This is part of a pan-India project that the Union Ministry of Transport and Highways initiated way back in 2001.

The State Government has initiated the first step to identify vendor to create infrastructure and supply the plates to vehicles owners in the State on build, own and operate basis. The plate will mainly prevent counterfeiting and duplication of such plates. There are flaws in the existing system of display of registration mark. “Roadside registration mark painting shows a backwardness of the country and is out of sync with modern technology automobiles,” according to the German company Utsch AG, a global supplier of HSR plates.

In the existing system, the records are manually created and maintained making it difficult to compile national data of motor vehicles. HSRP will help in creating computerised data of old registered vehicles and new vehicles at places where computerised records are not maintained. With the networking of all RTOs, it will become easy to prepare national data of motor vehicles, information in the company’s Web site says.

The HSR plates will bear letters “IND” in blue colour on the extreme left centre.

Each plate will have a chromium-based hologram and bear a permanent consecutive identification number of nine characters. There will be a laser numbering that will contain alpha-numeric identification of both testing agencies and the manufacturers.

A chromium-based third registration plate in the form of sticker will be attached to the wind shield, wherein the number of engine and chassis are indicated along with the name of registering authority. If tampered with, it self destructs.