Delhiites will get back seized driving licence in 90 days

Every year, around 7, 000-10,000 driving licences get misplaced while in transit from traffic police to various wings of the department, according to the officials of Delhi’s transport department.

Got challaned by traffic police, driving licence untraceable after three months? Come September, vehicle owners can expect seized driving licences to reach their doorstep within the stipulated period of three months.

Seized driving licences will be sent to owners’ registered addresses via speed post. (Burhaan Kinu/HT File)

The Delhi government’s transport department is set to launch its “centralised” system of sending seized driving licences to owners’ registered addresses via speed post, after complaints of licences getting misplaced in transit had been flooding the department.

The department has floated a tender for the same, which is likely to be opened on July 19.

Every year, around 7, 000-10,000 driving licences get misplaced while in transit from traffic police to various wings of the department, said officials.

“We are streamlining the entire process of returning driving licences that are suspended by traffic police for a set of violations under the directions of the Supreme Court -appointed committee on road safety. We are hoping the system is functional by September 15,” said special commissioner (transport) KK Dahiya.

There are a number of licences coming in to RTOs that are seized in other states by Delhi offenders. These, too, will now be coming to the headquarters.

A tender has been floated for hiring an agency for issuance of show-cause notice, suspension orders and return of suspended driving licences within 90 days.

The licence is suspended for three months in case a driver is caught for speeding, using mobile phone at the wheels, drunken driving, jumping a red traffic signal and overloading a goods vehicle.

In 2017, the police had seized 53,000 licences.

“The move to centralise the system came after a lot of complaints regarding licences not being able to be traced by the owners were being received. This will be resolved as show-cause notices will also be issued now by the headquarters,” said an officer on the condition of anonymity.

So far, the driving licences confiscated by traffic police would take six to seven months to be returned to the owners and would often get misplaced in the long process. In a bid to streamline the system, the department will now be outsourcing the task.

The department has created a software for the agency for keeping a record of the seized driving licences and sending these through speed post after a period of three months. Under a Supreme Court directive, driving licence is suspended for three months for traffic violations.

So far, the traffic police after confiscating the driving licences take a month to write to the concerned MLO, who then issues show-cause notices to the violators in another 15 days, after which the seized licence is suspended. After almost three months, they send the phyiscal driving licence back to the RTO to be returned to the violator. The entire process used to stretch to six-seven months during which the DLs would get misplaced most of the times.