Recovered vehicles at a police station in Bhubaneswar. File picture

Bhubaneswar, Feb. 23: High-security registration plates, which can check the theft of vehicles, are set to be introduced in the state soon. State Transport Authority sources said this project was likely to take off in the state in April.

Earlier, police had taken up a drive to correct vehicle registration plates, which were not written following the specifications of the Central Motor Vehicle Act, 1988. The authority had hinted at introducing the high-security registration plates then.

The police have been slapping fines on those violating the number plate norms. The violators are being fined between Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 following the Orissa Urban Police Act, 2006.

“High-security registration plates is a good move by the authorities because they will certainly help in curbing vehicle thefts. But the authorities must also ensure that the new plates come at a reasonable price,” said Satyabrata Behera, a college student.

Sources at the State Transport Authority said a tender had been floated to manufacture the number plates and the project would be enforced by the end of April.

The regional transport officer of Bhubaneswar, Lal Mohan Sethy, said that initially, new vehicles would be included in the plan. Later, older vehicles would also be brought under it.

High-security registration plates are tamper-proof number plates. Each of these plates will have a barcode and will break if someone tries to remove or replace it.

The new plates include the number plate with chromium hologram, a laser numbering with the alpha-numeric identification of both the testing agency and manufacturers. The characters are imprinted on the plate for better visibility. Sources at the regional transport office said the manufacturing unit would operate from the Chandrasekharpur driving test field.

State transport commissioner Surendra Kumar said the high-security registration plates would be introduced following the instructions of the Supreme Court. “We will ensure that people are able to switch over to the new registration plates at a reasonable price,” said Kumar.

Police sources said vehicle-owners, who put up fancy registration number plates, in which the number is not clearly visible, will be penalised. “We are fining only those who put up fancy number plates violating the Central Motor Vehicle Act,” said a senior police officer.

More than 7.5 lakh vehicles are registered under the Bhubaneswar regional transport office. Eighty percent of these are two-wheelers.