After brisk start,UT’s HSRP drive stalls

The administration,however,is shifting the blame on the vendor who has been allotted the tender almost two months back. While the Registration and Licensing Authority cum SDM ,Parshuram V Kavle is currently on leave,another senior official of the UT Administration on conditions of anonymity said: “ The vendor has to submit his letter of intent to the UT Administration. On our part,we are ready to implement the HSRP in another two weeks time”.

The tender for affixing the HSRP was allotted to a vendor from among three others almost two months back and even the HSRP rates for two wheelers and four wheelers have been decided upon.

Last August,UT administration launched the system with much fanfare. Barely a month later,however,the entire scheme had to be stalled with the Supreme Court terming,the Administration’s decision to allow vendors set up shop in the city,as arbitrary. By then,about 4,500 vehicles had already got HSRPs affixed in the city.

Following this,the SC directed the Chandigarh Administration to invite tenders for affixing HSRP in compliance with its order and finalise the entire procedure of affixing the plates on the vehicles afresh. March 31 was fixed as the deadline for the process.

The national capital,Delhi launched HSRP in May this year for new vehicles and had announced June 15 as the date for the older vehicles to start getting their old number plates with HSRP. Similarly,the neighbouring states of Punjab,Haryana and Himachal Pradesh have also started the process of affixing HSRP on both new and old vehicles.