By Lamphrang Nongspung
SHILLONG: Shimnit Utsch India Private Limited (SUIPL) has claimed that the High Security Registration Plate (HSRP) project implemented in Meghalaya does not have provision for tracking the physical position of a vehicle through satellite.
“There is a misconception among the people that the HSRP is mainly to prevent car thefts and that the registration plate has chip installed to it so that a stolen vehicle can be tracked via satellite.
“The fact is that the HSRP does not have such facilities in place,” SUIPL manager operations Satinder Pal Singh Suri told The Shillong Times here on Wednesday.
Even in the agreement which was signed between the company and the Government in November 2005, Suri said that there was never a clause which mentioned that the registration plates should have a tracking device.
“The primary reason for introducing the project in the State is to bring about a uniformity in the registration plates among all vehicles in Meghalaya in compliance with the Supreme Court directive. This is the only reason why the Government of Meghalaya wanted the HSRP to be fitted on both new and old vehicles,” the SUIPL official said.
Uniformity in the registration plates would make it easier for police to track down stolen vehicles since they are aware that there is only one particular style of registration plates among the vehicles in the State, he said.
“The police would be alert if they come across vehicles which have different type of registration plates. Even the car lifters would have to think twice before stealing vehicles which have a Meghalaya registration plate,” Suri said.
He pointed out that the Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has amended Rule 50 of Central Motor Vehicle Rules 1989 to standardize the pattern of displaying registration mark throughout India.
According to Suri, the existing system of display of registration mark suffers from various flaws such as people painting the registration plates in fancy ways in various sizes, fonts and with undesirable monograms. Repainting of registration plates is easy, so criminals get away unnoticed, he said.
“Fake registration plate encourages theft and road-based crimes,” he added.
Suri said under the existing system, all records are manually created and maintained so it becomes difficult to compile a national data of motor vehicles.
“The HSRP will help in creating computerized data of old registered vehicles and new vehicles at places where computerized records are not maintained at present. With the networking of all Regional Transport Offices (RTOs), it will become easy to prepare national data of motor vehicles,” Suri said.
With the availability of vehicle details online, he said that the law enforcing agencies can access details of the vehicle registration number, laser number, engine and chassis number at the click of the mouse. “This online facility would also control the duplicate issuance of vehicle registration certificates,” Suri said.
While dwelling on the salient features of the project, he said that one of the significant safety features of the HSRP is reflectivity.
“The HSRP will have high quality retro reflective sheeting which is laminated and embossed. This sheeting provides excellent conspicuity during day time and offer high reflectivity in the night. By virtue of reflective sheeting the vehicle is visible from a minimum distance of 200 meters at night irrespective of the working of its tail lamps,” Suri said.
Another salient feature is the hot-stamping of chromium-based hologram which makes it possible for a license plate to withstand inclement weather for many years.
“The hologram shall carry the image of ‘Chakra’ as notified by the Government of India. Being hot stamped with high pressure at 220º Celsius, this hologram cannot be tampered with or removed or replaced,” Suri informed.
He said that the Laser Etched Numeric Code is engraved on the left hand side just below the words IND with laser while adding that this is a sequential identification of individual license plates across the country.
“It acts as a watermark and cannot be erased. On the basis of this laser code, complete details of the vehicle can be easily obtained from the records of HSRP supplier/RTO,” Suri said
“Another important feature of the HSRP is the self destructive self-adhesive sticker pasted on wind screens. It contains all information pertaining to a vehicle’s registration. This serves the purpose of doubly securing the identification marks of a vehicle”.
He also informed that HSRP has the snap lock which is the external fastening device used as normal bolting procedure for the License Plates to the vehicle body.
“This device prevents removal and reusability of the License Plate from the vehicle. Also any tampering with the snap lock is easily detectable by naked eye, making it easy for the law enforcing agencies to detect any abnormality in the License Plate,” Suri said.
As per the Government data, he said that there are total of 1,75,000 registered vehicles in Meghalaya as on 31 March 2012.
“So far, the company has fitted the HSRP on 89,054 vehicles (both old and new) since it started its operations on August 8, 2006,” Suri said, adding that 11,395 are old vehicles and 77,659 are new ones.
When asked why the cost of fitting the HSRP in Meghalaya is higher when compared to other states in the country, Suri said it is due to the terrain and other logistics.
He however feels that the comparison should be made with other states of the North East.
In Meghalaya the average rate of the HSRP is Rs 1345, he said while adding that the average price of HSRP is Rs 1099 in Nagaland and Rs 926 in Mizoram.
“In Meghalaya the number of light and heavy motor vehicles is higher, thereby resulting in higher average rate,” Suri said.
It may be mentioned that the Supreme Court had directed the states and union territories to launch the HSRP as it is tamper-proof and non-replaceable, by April 30 this year for new vehicles and June 15 for old vehicles.