- Registration plates to be available next year
Deputy Minister of Transport and Highways Dr. Prasanna Gunasena says the Government is unable to meet the previously announced November deadline for issuing new vehicle number plates due to delays in the technical testing phase.
However, he added that it would be able to commence issuance of the new plates within two months.
According to Dr. Gunasena, there is a current backlog of over 100,000 vehicles, although the exact figure needs to be confirmed by the Department of Motor Traffic (DMT).
The large backlog arose after the Government introduced new high-security number plates, requiring all new vehicle registrations to wait until the new plates are ready for issuance.
Repeated attempts to contact DMT Commissioner General Kamal Amarasinghe failed, but Assistant Commissioner – Technical B.M.A.A. Banneheka was able to provide limited information.
“This is a topic ideally raised before the Commissioner General. Anyway, we have not been able to issue number plates for the past six months. On a daily basis, the DMT registers 400-500 new vehicles on average, so the number has accumulated over six months,” Banneheka stated.
According to Dr. Gunasena, the new plates are still undergoing final testing, including the verification of embedded security features. These features include machine-readable components and recognition capability intended to improve traceability and reduce fraudulent plate replication.
He said the number plates had been sent to the University of Moratuwa for technical testing, where certain security features had failed recognition checks, requiring further examination, including tests that needed to be done at an international level.
The failure of these components during the testing stage prevented the issuance of plates by the target date, 15 November, which lapsed yesterday.
Dr. Gunasena said the DMT had updated him that the problems identified during testing had now been addressed and that, based on the latest information, the Government expected to begin issuing the new plates within the next two months once all tests were completed and the contract was finalised.
The Deputy Minister also rejected allegations that there were irregularities or flaws in the tender process for procuring Sri Lanka’s new high-security vehicle number plates.
He said the tender evaluation and awarding process had been completed in accordance with standard Government procurement guidelines and the project had then moved to the technical testing stage. “There was no problem with the tender process. We have finished the tender process and moved for testing,” he noted.
Dr. Gunasena clarified that concerns raised by some parties related not to the evaluation of the winning bidder but to issues arising from applications submitted by unsuccessful bidders. He noted that although any eligible entity was free to submit a tender, submissions that failed to meet the procurement criteria had to be rejected and such rejections did not constitute grounds for reopening the tender.
He further stated that there was no need for a new tender, as the awarded tender was still valid pending completion of technical verification. He reiterated that the delays currently affecting the rollout of the new number plates stemmed from the testing process rather than procurement concerns.
– By Faizer Shaheid