Odisha: Driving license and registration certificates in electronic mode from January 1

BHUBANESWAR: No driving license (DL) and registration certificate (RC) in the State will be issued in smart card and paper format from January 1. But DLs and RCs issued in smart card and paper document earlier will be treated as valid. 

As per the amended Motor Vehicles Rules and considering the post smart chip scenario, the State government has decided to issue DL and RCs in electronic self-printable PDF format for the convenience of people. In a notification issued on Tuesday, the Commerce and Transport department stated a fee of Rs 140 will be levied in place of existing smart card paper for the electronic self-printable documents.

“As the DLs and RCs will now be provided in electronic form, the 2006 notification issued by Odisha government prescribing the fees for issue of various documents is now rescinded with effect from January 1,” it stated. 

The State government had entered into an agreement with New Delhi based Smart Chip Ltd in 2006 for the introduction of smart card-based DL and RC on Build Own Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis. The agreement that expired in July was extended up to December 31.