Only new vehicles to have ‘TG’ number plates in Telangana

The number plates that are currently TS, however, will continue while the change will apply to new vehicles

Hyderabad: The Regional Transport Authority (RTA) officials are preparing guidelines about the changing of the vehicle registration prefix from ‘TS’ to ‘TG’ for Telangana. The number plates that are currently TS, however, will continue while the change will apply to new vehicles. The guidelines are expected to be released in a few days.

Senior RTA officials here indicated that once the State government releases an order and it comes into effect, then immediately the new vehicles coming onto the roads in Telangana will be sporting registered number plates beginning with the ‘TG’ series.

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Initially, reports were doing rounds that there was a possibility that even old vehicle owners would have to make changes to the number plates and switch over to the new series. If all vehicles were to have the new numbers or series, the owners would have to spend a minimum of Rs 400 to get the new number plates. The Transport Department is also preparing to release guidelines in this regard in a few days. It is taking steps to avoid burdening the motorists.

Telangana already has over 1.60 crore vehicles. About 10,000 new vehicle registrations are being done across the State every day. However, the authorities are planning to change the number plates of newly registered vehicles to TG. The existing number plates which currently have ‘TS’ will continue. Also, after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, 30 lakh vehicles were continuing with AP registration number plates.

Currently, residents in 33 districts of Telangana own vehicles that have either AP series number plates (vehicles that were bought before June 2014) or TS series (vehicles bought in Telangana State). There was a significant number of motorists owning vehicles having both TS and AP series and using them. Now, with the fresh decision, there will be a scenario where residents of Telangana will be plying on roads with vehicles sporting three registration codes — TS, AP, and TG.