Telangana vehicle numbers won't change

Hyderabad: In a major relief to vehicle users in Telangana, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday announced that motorists in ten districts can retain the existing numbers and that only the AP code would become as TS. He also directed authorities to fix a nominal fee for modifying old registrations.

Rao held a review meeting in this connection with Transport Department officials here at Secretariat on Thursday. He pulled up officials for not giving proper information to the public which resulted in unnecessary confusion among vehicle users. People, who bought fancy number registrations by paying huge amounts were also upset that they would lose their favorite numbers in the new State, he said. Rao made it clear that TS initials and the number of corresponding district beside it (like TS-1 for Adilabad and TS-2 for Karimnagar) was the only change that needed to be done. Fancy numbers and other numbers, allotted to vehicle users at the time of their registration in the past, would be retained as it is. The meeting is understood to have decided to give a window period of four months (extension would be given if necessary) to vehicles users to get their old registration numbers modified.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that Transport department has forwarded registration codes for each of the ten districts for government's approval. Proposals sent to government are TS-1 for Adilabad, TS-2 for Karimngar, TS-3 for Warangal, TS-4 for Khammam, TS-5 for Nalgonda, TS-6 for Mahabubnagar, TS-7 and 8 for Ranga Reddy district, TS-9 to 14 for Hyderabad, TS-14 for Medak and TS-15 for Nizambad.