One can easily avail these services from the comfort of their home or at the Transport Facilitation Center through Aadhaar Authentication

Application would be auto-approved instantly once Aadhaar card is authenticated and fee is paid

Raipur, TNINS

As per the instructions of Transport Minister Mr. Mohammad Akbar, Transport Department has dissolved the mandate of applicant appearing in person at the RTO office for renewal of driving license, change of address in driving license, damage to driving license card, surrender of driving license. The department has come up with innovative technical solution to the problem. The applications for these services will be automatically approved by the software based on  Aadhaar authentication, and as a result the applicant will no longer need to visit RTO office for verification and approval. The applicant will receive the notification about the approval through SMS, and the next day, driving license will be dispatched to the applicant's given address via speed post.

Transport Secretary Mr. Prakash said that to simplify the process of renewal of driving license of different types of vehicles in the state, change of address in driving license, damage of driving license card, surrender of driving license, Transport Department has taken the initiative of issuing QR code based driving licenses in the new format using latest technology. As a result, the applicants no longer have to visit RTO office for these 06 driving license-related services. Through Aadhaar authentication general public can avail these 06 services from the comfort of their home or through Transport Facilitation Center.

Transport Commissioner Mr. Dipanshu Kabra said that the facilities provided to the public through Transport Suvidha Kendras are being expanded. Now people can get their driving license renewed, get the address on driving license changed, get their damaged driving license replaced from the comfort of their home, they will not be required to come all the way to the transport office to surrender the driving license. He said that the compulsion to visit the transport office to obtain the extract of driving license for legal purposes and to surrender the driving license of any category of vehicle has been dissolved. These services can be easily availed through Transport Facilitation Center as well. Until recently, people had to apply online for these facilities and upload all the documents and pay the fees online, after which they were required to visit RTO office for verification of the documents by the office staff. Now the Transport Department has simplified this process by providing auto approval through aadhaar authentication.

Transport Commissioner further said that this facility of approval through Aadhaar authentication was also provided earlier as well, under which the applicants did not have to come to the RTO office, if the application was authenticated through Aadhaar. But even in such Aadhaar authenticated cases, verification was done by the RTO staff and approval was given by the RTO. In the data analysis, it was found that even after Aadhaar authentication, the applications were withheld in the RTO office, delaying the process of verification and approval. To rectify this issue and for the convenience of the applicants,  the Transport Department has introduced this auto-approval through aadhaar authentication system. 

Use of software for aadhaar authentication and approval of the applications has eliminated the requirement of RTO staff verification and RTO approval. This new system has minimized the human intervention and expedited the process of driving license issuance. Applicants receive SMS and Whatsapp notification upon approval and the next day the driving license is sent through speed post to the given address. The SMS and Whatsapp notification will contain the details of the Driving License and Tracking ID of the Speed Post. 

The Transport Commissioner also said that it is mandatory for the applicant to have Aadhaar card and driving license to avail the facility of auto approval through Aadhaar authentication. To link the Aadhaar information to the driving license, Aadhaar authentication can be done by the applicant through OTP or it can be done through biometrics at any nearest transport department facility. Application through under Aadhaar Authentication will save the applicant from the labour of uploading all the documents, as the required information will be received from Aadhaar.

In cases where the age of the applicant is more than 40 years, the applicant will have to produce a medical certificate in Form 1A from a MBBS doctor registered in the Transport Department. The complete process of issuing medical certificate will also be online. In this, direct entry is made by the doctor in the portal of the transport department and no physical paper is required.