Karnataka RTOs to issue smart cards by month end

Bangalore: After a long wait, vehicle users in Karnataka will be issued smart cards by the state's regional transport offices (RTOs), by the end of this month. According to Vijaya Vikram, Joint Transport Commissioner of Karnataka, the registration certificates (RCs) of vehicles and the driving licenses (DLs) issued by the RTOs will be in the smart card format.

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"The Transport Department has implemented the computerized service delivery system at 15 RTOs in the State. The implementation of the system in the remaining 40 RTOs will be completed by month-end," said Vikram. The computerized service delivery system leads to the creation of centralized database of vehicles and driving licenses.

According to Vikram, the project will cover 82 lakh vehicles and 90 lakh vehicle users in Karnataka. The existing RCs and DLs should be converted to smart card system within two years. "The cost of the smart card is 200. The smart card-based driving license has an accident insurance of 1 lakh for death and 50,000 for permanent disability for one year from the date of issue," added Vikram.

The smart card contains a microprocessor-based chip with a 16-kb RAM embedded on a plastic card. The advantages of the system are that it provides for digital storage of data and easy access to it. In addition to this, the operations in the system are secure and tamper-proof.