Get Driving Licenses and Vehicle Registrations online from April 1

People will no longer have to visit the regional transport offices for obtaining a learner’s/driving licence or for registering their vehicles, what with the Transport department extending these services online to the entire State from April 1 onwards. The facility will enable people to send their applications online to any RTO, irrespective of the jurisdiction, across the State in the districts having more than one transport office, including Tumkur, Kolar, Mysore, Hassan, Shimoga, Gulbarga and Mangalore. The services were started in Bangalore in October last year and it has now been made compulsory for licence seekers and applicants for vehicle registration. Taking the e-initiative further, the Transport department will also implement the system of e-payment of motor vehicle tax. As of now, vehicle owners have to go to their corresponding area-specific regional transport offices, submit the documents physically and pay the fee at the counters. The trials of the online payment system have already been successfully conducted across the RTOs in Bangalore and the services will be launched across the State on April 1. A senior official of the Transport department told Deccan Herald that computerisation of the RTOs in the City had been done at a cost of Rs 14-15 crore. Besides, the department will also set up Vehicle Inspection and Certification Centres in Shimoga, Gulbarga and Mangalore. Currently, a vehicle fitness inspection centre at Hesaraghatta is in progress, for which the department had received a financial grant of Rs 2.68 crore from the Central government. The department is also setting up automated driving test tracks in Bellary, Gadag and Madikeri. Deccan Herald