Automotive

Understanding the responsibilities of RTO

We all have come across the term RTO at some point in our lives particularly when we talk either about buying a vehicle or applying for a driving licence. If you are wondering what RTO does and who they are, then to put it simply, this organization helps you in giving you the ownership of your vehicle. Besides this, there are many other key responsibilities of this department.

From registering the vehicle and issuing the driving licence to maintaining the complete database of the vehicles and drives in the country, the key objective of RTO is to handle all transport-related operations in India. In fact, RTO also takes care of several other tasks such as revenue or tax collection, environmental and pollution concerns, road safety and implementation of transportation rules. Since RTO serves as vehicle registrations offices in India, most people visit RTO for vehicle registration, transfer of RC, licence renewal as well as submitting new licence requests.

Regional Transport Offices are established in every state and union territory of the country and abide by the laws set up by the Motor Vehicle Act of 1988. The same laws and rules apply to every RTO, irrespective of the state and jurisdiction area. RTO also has the authority to enforce certain rules to increase vehicle safety and decrease road crimes. Vehicle traffic is increasing day-by-day, hence RTO has set up some strict rules for cases related to road accidents in order to regulate road transportation.

Some of the key responsibilities of RTO are listed as follows:

  • Implementing the vehicle rules set up as per the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988
  • Registration of the new vehicles
  • Keeping a database to have complete information about registered vehicles
  • Giving driver licences to vehicle owners
  • Inspection of vehicles on a regular basis
  • Providing certificates to support the robustness of vehicles
  • Accumulating road tax and revenues from owners
  • Giving licences to public transports like trucks, autos, taxis, etc
  • Executing the new rules declared by the government for vehicles
  • Monitoring emissions to keep a check on pollution levels

Thanks to the Internet, there are some tasks that you can do now from the comfort of your home and you do not need to visit RTO for them anymore such as applying for a new licence, renewing the old licence and downloading application forms. Thus, it is not necessary for you to especially visit RTOs and stand in long queues to get the work done. This is so beneficial as it saves so much time and energy. It is worth mentioning that not every work can be done online and there are few tasks for which you need to follow the conventional steps by visiting the local RTO including registration of a vehicle and driving test. You can also get the key details such as address and phone number online for every RTO. For example, if you live in Tamil Nadu, you can search for RTO Office details in Tamil Nadu and plan your visit accordingly to save your precious time.