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Smart card for driving licence and registration certificate

Written By Gautham Krishna | Published on April 23, 2019

Government of India has notified rules for common smart card formats for driving licenses (DL) and vehicle registration certificates (RC) for the entire country, on October 2018. Common smart card format will help to standardize the documents across all states and prepare a centralized digital repository that can also help in checking forgery and duplication

Design of card on the front side would be as shown below.

driving licence smart card pvc poly carbonate front side rto

Design of card on the back side would be as shown below.

driving licence smart card pvc poly carbonate back side rto

Smart Card

The front side of the new smart card provides the following information.

driving licence smart card pvc poly carbonate information front side rto

Card Header
National Emblem Symbol
Driving Licence Number
Date of First Issue
Name
Date of Birth
Son/Daughter/Wife Name
Address
Blood Group
Organ Donor
DL Number
Holder’s Sign
Card Issue Date
Photograph
State/UT Code
Validity(T)
Validity (NT)

The back side of the new smart card provides the following information.

driving licence smart card pvc poly carbonate information back side rto

Invalid Carriage (Registration No.): If applicable,
Driving Licence Number
Chip number (applicable in case of chip based card)
Vehicle class table
Licensing Authority
Form 7 Rule 16(2)
QR code (As specified by Central Government)

10. Hazardous Validity: if applicable

11. Hill Validity: if applicable

12. Emergency Contact No.

Card Size is 85.6mm x 54.02 mm +/- 2 mm and thickness of minimum 0.7 mm.

PVC / Poly Carbonate card

The option of providing a paper or booklet based driving licence or the registration certificate has been done away with. Now, such certificates can only be provided in two types of cards viz. a PVC based card or a Poly Carbonate one. The enriched specifications are of high standard and would enable durable and quality cards.

For Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC): Glossy surface, Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) / Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) plastic construction, with overlay to allow colour dye sublimation printing.

For Poly carbonate card: Multi-layered card construction using pure polycarbonate layers, fused (laminated) together with heat and pressure without any kind of glue or adhesive. Card Body material including outer overlay should be capable of personalization through Laser engraving.

NFC

The State Governments have been given the option to decide on the type of material of the card to be provided. Further, the optional features of providing a chip based smart card or a contact less features (NFC) has also been provided which the States can prescribe.

QR Code

A QR code has been prescribed on the cards. This would enable easy linking and access and validation of the information on the cards with the SARATHI or VAHAN database. As the Ministry had recently issued amendments of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules 1989 enabling transport related documents in an Electronic Form, the QR would facilitate the enforcement authorities.

Security Features

Following security features shall be incorporated in the card:

Guilloche pattern
Micro-printed text
Micro line
Ultra Violet fluorescing colour
Water mark
Hologram below the top layer

Current Status

In case the States / Union Territories require extra information to be stored, they may use any other additional information storage media or technological media, outside the microprocessor chip embodied in the smart card so long as such media do not conflict with the prescribed smart card or its operation.

The symmetric key infrastructure for both Smart Card based driving license and Registration Certificate have established at the Central level. State level operations are being commenced by Governments of Delhi, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tripura and West Bengal. Several other States are in various stages of progress on this account.

Government Notifications

MoRTH Notification on Uniform Driving Licence

FAQs

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RTO Works queries and its answers

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