Vehicle search option to be back on Transport dept portal

Facility was disabled over plaints of misuse

The Transport department will reintroduce the vehicle search option that allows users to search for vehicle registration details online. The department had disabled this facility two months ago, following complaints regarding the misuse of the facility to forge vehicle documents.

H G Kumar, in-charge transport commissioner, told Deccan Herald that the e-governance wing in the department was in the process of revamping the entire portal so that the search option cannot be misused. “The revamping work is nearing completion and the search option will be introduced in a week,” he said.

The facility was being misused by a few persons who relied on it to get the details of vehicles before negotiating a purchase deal. Information such as the name of the owner and details pertaining to hypothecation could be easily accessed through this option.

Presently, people have been approaching regional transport offices (RTOs) to fetch the registration details of the vehicle while purchasing second-hand vehicles.

Murugan, a resident of Devinagar, came to know that the truck that he wanted to purchase had a loan in the bank against it, when he searched on the portal of the department. The owner of the truck had hidden the information while negotiating the deal, he said.

Ramesh Gowda, an agent, said that when the facility was available, verifying the vehicle details was very easy. “Now, every time I try to make a deal, I have to approach the RTO and there, the staff demand extra money for the request,” he said.

The registration details available online are not an alternative to the extract certificate of the vehicle given by the concerned authority at the RTO. However, it was being used as a primary source of information before purchasing second-hand vehicles.