The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Smart cards to replace driving licences, papers

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Monday, May 05, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Smart cards to replace driving licences, papers

J. Malarvizhi

The project is to be implemented in two phases

CHENNAI: City residents will soon be exchanging their driving licences and registration papers for ‘smart cards.’

The pilot project of the Transport Department will be introduced in the Chennai South, Cuddalore and Sivagangai Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) initially, according to a recent announcement made by Transport Minister K.N. Nehru.

Inspection officers, who check whether vehicle drivers possess a valid licence, would be given smart card readers that would check for the details.

The project is to be implemented in two phases. Once the pilot project proves successful, it would be extended to the rest of the State. “No other State has such arrangements,” Transport Commissioner C.P. Singh said.

The smart card would be like a credit card. The High Court recently gave the go-ahead to the State government for floating tenders for the smart cards. A petitioner had protested the revision of specifications for the smart cards for a rewritable memory capacity of a microprocessor chip from 4 kilo byte to 16 kilo byte, after the initial attempt to float tenders. The department had also specified that the manufacturer have a manufacturing facility in India and ISO certification.

Bids have been invited and they would be evaluated in two weeks. It is likely that those seeking licences from the three RTOs would be issued smart cards in another two months. Existing licence holders would have to exchange their papers for the cards by a specified date, Mr. Singh said.

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