The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways vide, GSR 174 (E) dated 1^st March 2019 has decided to modify the format of driving licenses to laminated card without chip or smart card type driving licences. The Ministry has prescribed a common standard format and design of the Driving Licence for whole of the country which includes the placement of information, standardization of fonts etc. This Ministry through its flagship application called SARATHI (for Driving License) developed by NIC (National Informatics Centre) have a common countrywide database of all driving license holders. Almost 15 crore driving license records are available in its central repository (National Registry). The SARATHI application has the feature to identify duplicate records in real time online basis and access information about the challans if any, which facilitates the licencing authority that delinquent drivers do not get a duplicate driving licence.

This information was given by the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Shri Nitin J Gadkari in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

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NP/MS