P Laxma Reddy By

VIJAYAWADA: It is mandatory for the people to have the Aadhaar card for their vehicle registration from October 4. Those who aspire for driving licence should also produce their Aadhaar cards at the respective regional transport offices as the Transport Department is linking the details of vehicle-owners and driving licence-holders with Aadhaar cards.

According to official sources, an Aadhaar-enabled State Resident Data Hub project to facilitate all departments to roll out their services to citizens in a transparent manner has begun in the Kuppam Assembly constituency in Chittoor district which is represented by chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, as a pilot project in August this year.

Deputy transport commissioner, Vijayawada, Ch Sivalingaiah said that they are going to implement the initiative from October 4. New vehicle-owners and driving licence- aspirants will have to produce the Aadhaar cards, failing which the authorities would not register the vehicle or issue licence.

This is applicable even for those filing their applications for driving licence and they need to furnish the details in the online form for booking driving test slots. In the first phase, the linkage is restricted to new vehicle registration and driving licence.

Later, it will be extended to other transactions like renewal of fitness certificates, payment of taxes etc and already, software has been upgraded to facilitate the linkage with Aadhaar cards.

The main objective of this initiative is to maintain history of the vehicle-owners and driving licence-holders and the existing licence-holders can approach the respective regional transport offices to enroll their details.

On an average, 450 driving licences are issued every day and about 320 new vehicles are registered in Krishna district.

There are three offices -- RTO-1, RTO-2 and RTO-3 -- in Vijayawada city apart from one at Gudivada and another at Nandigama.