LAHORE: The provincial government is introducing universal number plates (all Punjab computerised) next month to effectively keep an electronic eye on all motor vehicles and particularly detect their usage for crime.

The scheme has been approved by the cabinet and the chief minister.

Officials on Saturday said the secretary (excise) will issue notification of the launch of the universal number plates series which will now follow the following format AAA 111, AAA 123 etc, in the next week. The series will be launched within the next month while tendering process has been initiated for the change in number plate design, they said.

The new design will have larger plates plus the size of the text has also been increased. These plates are Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), and are readable by all cameras installed by the Punjab Safe City Authority.

They said the scheme had been launched by the Chief Minister’s Strategic Reforms Unit in league with the Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control Department.

“The launch of the universal plates initiative marks an important step for the province to ensure uniformity in vehicular registration,” an official said.

He said for the first time ever, province-centric number plates would be issued across Punjab instead of the current city-centric plates.

Previously, vehicles that were purchased in smaller cities would be sold for a lower price than vehicles purchased in large cities. This problem also resulted in large demand of number plates in excise offices in major cities such as Lahore. With the introduction of universal plates, the registration of licenced plates in smaller cities would increase, reducing the load on ET&NC officials in large cities, and making it more convenient for customers to get [licenced] plates.

The new plates would allow the law-enforcement agencies to monitor the movement of these vehicles across Punjab. They had been designed to be compatible with the cameras installed by the Punjab Safe City Authority.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2018