Four-wheelers and two-wheelers over 50 years can be registered as vintage on the central government’s Vahan portal.

The special secretary in the state transport department, Kanchan Chaudhury, had on January 14 sent a directive to the director of the transport directorate detailing the process by which these vehicles can be registered on the portal, which would make them road-legal to an extent.

Once registered as vintage, such vehicles will be exempt from road taxes and pollution certificates though they will have to pass the fitness test every five years.

However, government sources said, such vehicles still cannot be used regularly because they will not conform to modern emission norms.

There are over 200 vintage and classic cars and two-wheelers in the city. Some are registered on the Vahan portal as Light Motor Vehicles, having passed the mandatory fitness and pollution tests.

Some others are not registered on Vahan but have “manual registration” and the “blue book” or registration certificate. There are others without any records at all.

The directive to the transport department states that vehicles over 50 years from the date of manufacture can be registered as vintage vehicles on the Vahan app.

Vehicles with the blue book can be registered through “backlog data entry” and converted to vintage after the payment of fees and taxes.

Vehicles without a blue book have to be presented before the regional transport officer concerned so their engine and chassis numbers can be noted down. If the numbers are on Vahan, they can be registered as vintage vehicles after the transfer of ownership.

If the engine and chassis numbers are not on Vahan, the vehicle details will have to be published in five newspapers to ascertain whether there is any claimant. The ownership can be transferred to the person who possesses the vehicle if there are no claimants.

A provisional registration as a vintage vehicle will be allowed after the submission of an indemnity bond.

Reacting to the government’s decision to allow the registration of vintage vehicles, Ritabrata Mukherjee of Classic Drivers Club, a registered vintage vehicle owners’ group, said: “We have been lobbying with the government for a long time to get vintage vehicles registered on Vahan. This will make the vehicles road-legal.”

In 2020, the Union ministry of road transport and highways issued a notification modifying the Motor Vehicles Act and the Motor Vehicles Rules to allow the registration of vehicles older than 50 years as vintage vehicles on Vahan.

“Since vehicle registration is a concurrent subject, the state governments needed to issue notifications allowing such registrations,” said Mukherjee.

The gazette notification in Bengal was issued in November 2024 and the notice to the transport directorate for such registration was sent earlier this month.

“This will go a long way in preserving the motor heritage of Calcutta,” said Srivardhan Kanoria, a restorer and collector of vintage vehicles and the founder-president of Eastern India Motoring Group.

Prithvi Nath Tagore, founder trustee of the Classic Drivers Club, said: “We as a community have been pondering over the legality of vintage cars with no valid registration papers.”

A large number of vintage cars and bikes have number plates but are not registered on Vahan. They were either bought as scrap from garages in Mullickbazar or other places, including some remote rural areas, and restored.

“These vehicles have participated in rallies and shows but they don’t have papers,” said Tagore.

Some vehicles have passed through generations in families and documents have been misplaced. Others were bought outside the state without valid papers.

With registration now possible for such vehicles, the owners and restorers will be encouraged more to preserve them.