The Regional Transport Office or District Transport Office or Regional Transport Authority ( RTO/DTO/RTA) is the organisation of the

Indian government The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the Government, national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy lo ...

responsible for maintaining a database of drivers and a database of vehicles for various states of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The RTO issues

driving licences A driver's license is a legal authorization, or the official document confirming such an authorization, for a specific individual to operate one or more types of motorized vehicles—such as motorcycles, cars, trucks, or buses—on a public ...

, organises collection of

vehicle excise duty Vehicle Excise Duty (VED; also known as "vehicle tax", "car tax", and more controversially as "road tax", and formerly as a "tax disc") is an annual tax that is levied as an excise duty and which must be paid for most types of powered vehicles which ...

(also known as ''

road tax Road tax, known by various names around the world, is a tax which has to be paid on, or included with, a motorised vehicle to use it on a public road. National implementations Australia All states and territories require an annual vehicle registra ...

'' and ''road fund licence'') and sells personalised registrations. Along with this, the RTO is also responsible to inspect vehicle's insurance and clear the pollution test. Function of RTO: # To enforce the provisions of the various acts of motor vehicles, central motor vehicle rules and the State motor vehicle rules as laid down by the government from time to time. # To ensure that co-ordinated development of road transport through management of permit. # To charge and collect tax as per the provisions of the motor vehicle act. # To enforce road safety and bring in new amendments into force with relation to the Indian Motor Vehicle Act 1988. The officer ranks are categorized as: (Rank from lower to higher, Mostly known by different names for designations across different states) # Junior Inspector of Motor Vehicles # Senior Inspector of Motor Vehicles # Assistant Regional Transport Officer # Regional Transport Officer # Followed by other top level officers acting as Administrators for the Department *The Above mentioned designation names are as per Government of Karnataka Nomenclature

RTO database

The RTO identifies untaxed vehicles (Periodic or Lifetime), and identify keepers of cars entering various Indian states, or who exceed speed limits on a road that has

speed camera In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a scalar quantit ...

s by matching the cars to their keepers utilising the RTO database. The High Security Registration plates (HSRP) were introduced to help reduce vehicle crime and improve security. It is intended to deter criminals from disguising stolen cars with the identity of written off or scrapped vehicles. The RTO database will include important details such as Make, Model, VIN number, and further changes (if any) and the owner of the car is completely entitled to with any law offense or change of ownership or renewal procedures. There are various portals where one can check their license status.

Vehicle registration certificate

The owner of a vehicle can apply and get duplicate copy of the

vehicle registration certificate A vehicle registration certificate is an official document providing proof of registration of a vehicle. It is used primarily by governments as a means of ensuring that all road vehicles are on the national vehicle register, but is also used as a ...

from the concerned RTO office if it is stolen, lost, destructed and completely written off. A complaint should be lodged to the police station which is situated under the jurisdiction / area of lost before approaching the regional transport officer. After completing the formalities, the owner has to submit FORM 26 and the Police Certificate to the Registering Authority along with the required documents for applying duplicate vehicle registration certificate. Certain states in the country allow for acquiring a certificate for candidates appearing to Heavy Motor Vehicle licenses to which Government of India or Government of India allied centers take responsibility in teaching Road safety, Public driving skills and risk aversion management. Vehicle certification pertaining to scrappage of a motor vehicle after the expiry of Green Tax validity and after the completion of Life Time Tax (Petrol vehicles up to 20 years and Diesel vehicles up to 15 years) is also carried with the Regional Transport Office of the respective states. Certain states in the country also ensures the Regional Transport Office/Officer to inspect and issue a certification for protocol management of VIP convoys for to ensure safety and to avoid mismanagement.

References

{{authority control Road authorities Road transport in India Government agencies of India Transport organisations based in India

RTO database

Vehicle registration certificate

See also

References