Pune: Owners of vehicles without High Security Registration Plates (HSRPs), who have neither installed them nor booked an appointment for the same, will face repeated fines every time they are caught, senior officials from the local Regional Transport Office (RTO) have warned.Regional transport officer Archana Gaikwad told TOI on Thursday that 69 vehicles were fined Rs1,000 each on July 1 for not having HSRPs, and the enforcement drive will continue.“The drive is underway across different parts of the city and we expect more violators to be caught. If a vehicle owner is fined on Thursday and is caught again on Friday or any other day without an HSRP, the fine will be imposed again. There is no limit to the number of times a violator can be fined. The penalty will continue until the vehicle has a valid HSRP or the owner produces proof of having booked an appointment for its installation,” Gaikwad said.She added that the Pune traffic police have also begun cracking down on vehicles without HSRPs. “Since they have a much larger workforce, they are likely to detect far more violations than us. The cost of getting an HSRP is far lower than repeatedly paying fines and the process is no longer difficult. We urge vehicle owners to get the plates installed without delay. Many RTO-related services will also not be processed without an HSRP, so people should avoid unnecessary inconvenience,” she said.The deadline for fitting HSRPs on vehicles registered before April 2019 ended on June 30, with state govt ruling out any further extension. Earlier, state transport minister Pratap Sarnaik had said that despite multiple extensions, the response from vehicle owners remained poor, indicating that many were not taking the requirement seriously.The latest figures from Pune also show barely any progress. Data shared on June 22 showed that 9,42,445 of the district’s 24,28,589 eligible vehicles had been fitted with HSRPs, while 11,44,495 owners had booked appointments. By July 2, the number of fitments had increased only slightly to 9,46,314, while appointments rose marginally to 11,48,543.“With enforcement now in full swing, we expect both appointments and fitments to rise. Vehicle owners would rather install an HSRP than repeatedly pay a Rs1,000 penalty. We are also working on measures to improve access to HSRP installation centres in semi-urban and rural areas,” another RTO official said, choosing to stay unnamed.Many vehicle owners said that the process of taking appointments needed to be revamped. Kothrud resident and private sector employee Krishnath Patil told TOI, “The existing online appointment system should be just one of many more options. More thought needs to go into this system so that authorities get the desired numbers for compliance. In fact, several govt vehicles and public transport vehicles, including PMPML buses, still don’t have HSRPs.”
