Smart cards for vehicles and driving licences will now come with a QR code.
Once scanned, the QR code in a smart card will throw up all relevant details of a vehicle, including when it was registered, place of registration, whether the vehicle’s owner has a fitness certificate and whether the vehicle’s insurance is still valid.
The code in a driving licence will reveal whether it is valid and whether the licence holder has a history of violating traffic regulations.
The QR code will be placed below the photograph of the licence holder and will have a chip embedded in it.
“We will soon start shortlisting vendors to manufacture QR code-enabled smart cards and driving licences. They will be made available to users within two months,” said a senior official in the transport department.
A few years back, the ministry of road transport and highways had issued a notice instructing all states to follow a fixed code for smart cards and driving licences.
The states used to follow separate formats for the cards because no provision for a uniform code has been spelt out in the Central Motor Vehicles Rules.
The Union ministry had laid down a specific code for all states and asked them to abide by it so there was uniformity among smart cards and driving licences issued across the country.
A few states followed the Centre’s instruction but Bengal did not.
Senior transport department officials said the new smart cards and driving licences would abide by the Centre’s directive on the colour code and font size. The documents, the officials said, will resemble the ones issued by many other states.
Several senior police officers said the new cards would help them detect repeat offenders in a few seconds by scanning the QR code.
“Several offences, such as drink driving, invite tougher penalties for repeat offenders. An officer on duty on a road often fails to recognise a serial offender and such offenders get away by paying the penalty reserved for first-time violators,” said a senior officer of Kolkata police.
“We will need QR scanners once the transport department starts issuing the new smart cards and driving licences. The e-challans will then specify whether an offender has been booked for the first, second or third time.”
Over a year now, smart cards have not been available in several parts of the state because of some dispute between the government and vendors contracted to print them. Instead, owners are being issued certificates bearing registration details of the vehicles.
In some pockets, even driving licences came in the form of printed paper owing to a glitch in the printing process.