The finding of central government run agency revealed that the status of insurance of at least 62% of registered vehicles in Delhi is ‘unknown’.
A preliminary report prepared by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) has compiled data by tallying registered vehicles in the National Capital with their corresponding insurance policies.
“In Delhi, the gap is the widest. Of 72 lakh vehicles with valid registration, only around 30 lakh insurance policies are available with us, including the records of the new vehicles whose insurance information is recorded at the time of registration. There is a gap of 42 lakh vehicles whose insurance status is unknown (either uninsured, or not received in Vahan),” read a communication sent by NIC to the secretary general of General Insurance Council and other stakeholders.
“There are certainly going to be cases where vehicles are not insured. But, in some cases, there is also a possibility that the insurance companies have not compiled their data properly,” a transport official said.
NIC official handling the project said, “Unlike other states, where numbers start from 01 to 99, registration numbers in Delhi are unique. They start from 1 and not 0. But, many insurance companies themselves have added 0 to the vehicle numbers in Delhi. Since it is the first time such data linking process is being carried out across the country, these problems are bound to occur.”
Following the report, the NIC said it has written to all insurance companies to correct their data and send it along again.
According to the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, driving without insurance could lead to a fine of up to Rs 1,000 or imprisonment up to three months or both.
On the directions of the apex court, the ministry of road transport and highways had issued directions to collect data of all registered vehicles along with their insurance numbers to help victims of road accidents to avail claim compensation as well as to facilitate the police in issuing fines to uninsured vehicles directly from the operations and command centres.
