Over the last few months, the Road Transport Authority (RTA) has taken a series of measures to help ease procedures for its personnel and also the public. This includes the rollout of a mobile application to help officers in inspections, and providing SMS facilities to citizens for some of its services.

Transport Commissioner Sandeep Kumar Sultania spoke to YUNUS Y. LASANIA on some of the RTA’s initiatives that have improved the department’s functioning, and also about upcoming services.

Now that the High Security Number Plates (HSNPs) have been introduced for newly-registered vehicles, will they be introduced even for old ones? How are these plates better or useful?

The HSNP has a lot of features. They are unique, tamper-proof, unchangeable, and can be identified easily. The plates can’t be replaced, and they are used worldwide.

Even all non-HSNP vehicles will have to replace them eventually, once an order is issued by the State government.

There are a lot of unpaid e-challans pending with the RTA. Have any steps been taken to bring down the pendency?

The pendency of unpaid e-challans has come down a lot. Until two months ago, it was about 50 per cent, but after coordination with our officers, we have managed to bring down the percentage.

Private transport owners from Andhra Pradesh recently took the RTA to court for the levy of higher tax. Could you explain why they had an issue with it?

As per Section 3 of the Motor Vehicle Taxation Act, 1963, the State has a right to tax vehicles plying on its roads, and it issued a tax notice because of that right. Even the court directed that those vehicles have to pay tax.

Now that there is real-time information with the RTA, apart from other online projects that have begun recently, what are the other plans for the department in the coming future?

We want to take computerisation to a new level in the State, and we are studying different models for it now. There are people waiting in lines for half an hour to get their work done, and we want to reduce that.

- Sandeep Kumar Sultania Transport Commissioner