How to find vehicle information by number plate
There are many instances where you may need to check the identity of a vehicle or its owner. The vehicle may have been involved in a hit-and-run case, or may have been in an accident. Or you may wish to purchase a used vehicle from someone, or may need a No Objection Certificate (NOC). Gone are the days when you would have to make multiple trips to the Regional Transport Office (RTO) to get all the RC details of the vehicle. To reduce wastage of time standing in long queues, decrease the amount of paperwork and make the process seamless, the transport ministry came up with a solution to digitise the entire exercise online and launched a national registry in the form of the ParivahanSewa portal. With the help of this portal, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has been able to successfully digitise all vehicular information of more than 28 crore vehicles in the country. Through this portal, a person can easily check all information about the vehicle and its owner, simply by typing in the vehicle’s registration number.
The transport ministry has made this information available to the general public so that in times of accidents, hit and run cases or vehicle sale or purchase, people are aware of the owner and know all relevant information about the vehicle such as its blacklist status, pending e-challan against it, and if the vehicle RC is hypothecated or not. When you wish to find all the relevant information of the vehicle through its registration number online, you will receive the following information:
- Date of registration of the vehicle
- Chassis number (partially visible)
- Engine number (partially visible)
- Name of the owner
- Vehicle class
- Fuel type
- Manufacturer of the vehicle
- Model
- Fitness expiration date
- Road tax details
- Insurance expiration date
- Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificate validity
- Emission norms details
- Status of the registration certificate
Instead of going to the RTO, there are two ways with which you can retrieve vehicular information with the registration number online. One is by logging onto the ParivahanSewa portal. There, you will be prompted to enter the vehicle registration number, along with the captcha or the verification code. Once you enter the details, you will get access to all the information as mentioned above about the vehicle. An important point to remember is that this facility to obtain vehicle information online is available for all states in India.
Another way has been created by the transport ministry to ensure that you get the information on your mobile even without the presence of the internet. This is via SMS. To obtain the details of a vehicle via SMS, you need to type in VAHAN <space> vehicle’s registration number and send it to 7738299899. Once you send the SMS, you will receive vehicle information such as vehicle owner’s name, RTO details, make and model of the vehicle, registration certificate and fitness certificate expiration dates, insurance details, etc. Through these two ways you can trace and verify all relevant vehicle information simply by using the vehicle’s registration number.
