Indian licence plates: Encyclopedia II - Indian licence plates - Format

Indian licence plates - Format

Format of the registration is as shown below

Where SS is the two letter state code; DD is the two digit district code; NNNN is the unique licence plate number and AA are the optional alphabets if the 9999 numbers are used up. An example would be:

MH 01 CA 1002

The first two alphabets MH indicate that the vehicle is from the state Maharashtra. The next two are the district (In this case the capital Mumbai). CA 1002 is the unique licence plate number.

The National Capital Territory of Delhi has an additional code in the registration code:

Where SS is the two letter code for Delhi (DL). The additional C (for category of vehicle) is the letter 'S' for two-wheelers, 'C' for cars and SUVs, 'R' for the three-wheeled rickshaws and 'V' for pick-up trucks and vans. Thus a Delhi-specific example is:

DL 05 S AB 9876

Indian licence plates - States

All Indian states and Union Territories have their own two-letter code. This two letter referencing came into action in the 1980s. Before that each district or Regional Transport Officer's office had a three letter code without mentioning the state, which lead to a fair degree of confusion - for example, MMC 8259 could fit in anywhere in the country. To avoid this ambiguity the state code was included along with the district or RTO's office. In some states such as Maharashtra, licence plates before 1960, when the state was known as Bombay Presidency, bear notations such as BMC or BDL.

In some states certain licence plates are rendered redundant after the creation of new states. After the carving out of Uttaranchal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar respectively, the entire registration numbering in the newly chalked territories had to be overhauled.

The list of two-lettered state codes is as follows:

Indian licence plates - Districts

Since all states have a two or more districts, the district is given the charge of registering the vehicle. A vehicle bears the registration of the district in which it is bought rather than the district of residence of the owner. In many states, officials insist that the plates be changed to the local numbers if the owner shifts residence.

The number of districts in the state need not equal the number of permutations of the district field of the licence plate. Often, in large cities the geographical district can be split into two or more administered regions, each governed by an RTO. A case is the Mumbai Suburban district which has the plate bearings MH-02 and MH-03. Also the 01' digit may reflect the capital district of the state, though it may not always be the case.

In some states such as West Bengal, each RTO issues two numbers, one for commercial vehicles and another for private vehicles. Eg. Kalimpong has the numbers WB-79 for private vehicles and WB-78 for commercial or public ones.

Though the district field is of two digits, in some areas such as Delhi, the 0 is omitted, usually because Delhi has less than ten districts thus removing any ambiguity. Eg. DL-6 .

Indian licence plates - Unique numbering

The last four digits are unique to the vehicle. Usually, the lower 1000 numbers are government registered numbers, but it may not always be the case. Special lucky numbers such as 3333 or 6666 fetch a premium and may touch above rupees 10,000.

Indian licence plates - Unique alphabets

If all the 9999 numbers are used up, the RTO adds the letter 'A before the number space so that more numbers can be accommodated. In some states, the two letters also give the description of the make of the vehicle. Eg. In Mumbai, MH-01 AA would point to a two-wheeler; where as MH-01 CA is a small car. MH-01 J **** and MH-01 X **** are taxis.

The alphabets may also reflect the subdivision of the district if the district is geographically large.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Format", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki