ISLAMABAD, Nov 19: The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has innovated a new technology to identify stolen vehicles.

An official source said the new technology would provide secure identification for each vehicle that comes in the country through the legal route or is manufactured inside the country, while the responsibility of registration would remain a provincial subject.

Countrywide data of vehicles will be easily accessible to the law-enforcement agencies on a single platform irrespective of the area of operation and efforts will be made to register all sources of manufacture and importers of vehicles.

The source said although the provinces had progressed in the realm of motor vehicle registration, yet they were limited to the individual areas and, therefore, there was a strong need to bring the identity of vehicles of the entire country on one platform.

A secure Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), with the vehicle characteristics, will be issued along with the vehicle as it leaves the factory or port. Every owner will be cross-matched with the VIN in the data base and a smart or secure chip card with the vehicle and owner details.

Nadra will establish a central vehicle registration system for identification of all vehicles irrespective of the province of operation and all manufacturers and importers will be registered.

To overcome theft of vehicle, a passive windshield radio frequency sticker will be used as a transponder for VIN, from which the radio frequency infrared readers placed at designated highways and roads would read the VIN.

Police, at designated check posts, would also be given the mobile handheld smart card readers, having the ability to read the owner’s vehicle registration cards.

For registration purpose every vehicle will have its own unique identity, irrespective of its owner or its province of registration.