The road transport ministry of India will soon complete its ‘transport project’, under which the details of all driving licences and vehicles sold in the country will be recorded in a national register. This will make it easier for the authorities to track stolen vehicles and detect fake licences. Already, 919 of the 990 Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) in the country have been computerized. The separate databases of the states will be migrated to a central database within 6 months.

The project uses software developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), which helps a Regional Transport Office upload the registration details of driving licences and vehicles online, after which the data is to be captured by state registers. The databanks created in this manner will finally be moved to a national register. Apart from strengthening the security system in the country, the process will also make it a lot easier for vehicle owners and drivers to register their vehicles and licences.