Vehicle Registration Marks and Reservation of Numbers.

Many people have craze on their vehicle registration numbers. Some of them want fancy numbers while the others want numbers according to their belief in the numerical astrology. Whatever it may, it will be interesting to know about the theory of formation of vehicle registration numbers in the state, keeping it as a unique identifier for each vehicle.

Old System.

Till the implementation of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988, we used a combination of three English alphabets followed by numerals, from 1 to 9999, to make a unique registration mark. First letter ‘K’ represents the state of Kerala, the second letter shows the series and is fixed by the Government of Kerala when the previous one was exhausted. ‘L’,’R’, ‘E’, ‘B’, and ‘C’ were the alphabets used for the second position. The alphabet in third position represents the District in which the vehicle was registered. Table below shows the alphabets used for representing each District

Thus the registration marks issued in Trivandrum District were

            KLT-1 to KLT-9999, KLV-1 to KLV-9999
                            KRT-1 to KRT-9999, KRV-1 to KRT-9999
                            KET-1 to KET-9999, KEV-1 to KEV-9999

            KBT-1 to KBT-9999, KBV-1 to 9999

            KCT-1 to KCT-9999, KCV-1 to KCV- not completed

            .

Present System

            On the commencement of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988, wef  01/07/1989, the registration mark of vehicles is formed in a new format. The Government of India has allotted ‘KL’ as the state-code to Kerala State; which forms the first part of registration mark for the vehicles registered in this state.

            The second part was a numerical District-Code starting from 01 for Trivandrum, ending at 14 for Kasargod and 15 for Sate Transport Undertaking (KSRTC).

            When three Sub Regional Transport Offices are upgraded as Rural Regional Transport Offices, district code is extended to them as 16 for Attingal, 17 for Muvattupuzha and 18 for Vadagara.

            Later, considering the exponential increase in the registration of the vehicles and difficulty in allotting groups of numbers from Regional Offices to Sub Regional offices, Government has decided to allot registration codes for every office. Code numbers 19 to 60 are allotted to each Sub Regional Transport Office.

            The last part is numerical part starting from 1 to 9999. When the number comes to 9999 a third part is introduced in between the second and last numerical parts. This third part represents the ‘series’ starting from A to Z avoiding ‘I’ and ‘O’. When the series comes to ‘Z’ new series starts from AA to AZ and then BA to ZZ avoiding ‘I’ and ‘O’.

            examples of  registration Number in Trivandrum.

                                KL-01-8756   

KL-01-A-5742

KL-01-AJ-86   (‘KL’ –state code, 01- Office code, AJ-Series, 86-Running Number)

Allotment of Registration Numbers.

            The inspecting officer examines the applications for registration and inspects the vehicles produced before him. Acknowledgements will be issued by the inspecting officer on every proper application immediately after the inspection. All the applications received in a day are entered in the computer in the afternoon. On giving a command to the computer the system will allot Registration Numbers to all the Vehicles instantly. There are no manual interventions in allotting the Registration Numbers, except for the reserved numbers. The allotted numbers can be seen from the Information Kiosk provided in the office instantly or from the office notice board. If the concerned office is connected to KSWAN the allotted numbers can be viewed online.

Fancy Registration Numbers

Some registration numbers in every series are notified by the Government as Fancy Numbers. These numbers will be allotted only on reservation. These numbers can be viewed in Number Booking menu.

Reservation of Registration Marks

            You can apply for reservation of any Registration Mark, including the fancy numbers, within the range of 250 numbers after the last allotted number. Prescribed Application Form shall be used and prescribed fee of Rs 2000/- shall be remitted in concerned office.

            If no other application is received for the same number in same day, that number will be reserved to you on the next day and sanction proceedings will be issued to you in duplicate.

            If  more than one application are received for reserving a particular number in the same day, the number will be allotted to the highest bidder in an auction conducted among all the applicants. The highest bidder shall remit the auction money immediately on completion of auction. Otherwise the number will be allotted to the next highest bidder.

IMPORTANT. If you have reserved a particular registration mark, you should not produce the vehicle for inspection without obtaining the number allotment proceedings from the registering authority and attached it as the first page of your application.  If you are failed to produce the sanction proceedings as the first page of your application the automatic number allotment system may allot an ordinary number to your vehicle from the running series; thereafter it will not be possible to change.

            If you failed to produce a vehicle for the reserved number within three months from the date of orders, the orders allotting the number will be lapsed.

All such lapsed numbers and unreserved notified fancy numbers will be allotted on the completion of a series and prior to the allotment from the new series.