Surat: Officials of Regional Transport Office (RTO) have started visiting doorsteps of residents in the city to get their old vehicle registration plates replaced with high security registration plates (HSRPs).Official sources said state government has fixed December 31 as the final deadline for replacing the old number plates. RTO officials said they have been targeting residential societies, apartments, schools and colleges where HSRP agency personnel will be visiting for fitting the HSRPs.Sources said none of the residential societies, individuals, schools or colleges has given application to RTO for fitment of HSRPs on old vehicles. The owners of old vehicles will have to comply with HSRP norms, or else they will have to pay hefty fine when caught driving on road after December 31, 2018.Regional transport officer (RTO) Parth Joshi said, “The HSRP fitment teams are ready to serve users of old vehicles, but we are waiting for applications from residential societies, apartments, schools and colleges. We will process the applications and accordingly the new HRSP plates will be fitted on the vehicles.”According to Joshi, Surat is the second city in the state where all new vehicles have been fitted with HSRPs. Earlier, the state government had extended the deadline for HSRP fitment on old vehicles on two occasions. Approximately, nine lakh vehicles in the Diamond City are yet to be fitted with HSRP plates.An RTO inspector said, “Two-wheeler and car dealers, who are deemed RTO for fitting HSRPs, are charging Rs500 for two-wheelers and Rs1,000 for car for HSRP fitment. However, the rates declared by transport department for dealers of two-wheelers and three-wheelers is Rs89 for light motor vehicle and Rs150 for heavy motor vehicle. Hence, we are asking people to come to us directly for HSRP fitment.”

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