Maharashtra registers 8.26% uptick in new vehicles registration in 2021

Vehicle registrations saw an uptick of 8.26% in Maharashtra last year as over 19.22 lakh new vehicles hit the roads of the state, an official statement informed on Tuesday. According to the state's transport department, the figure of new vehicle registrations in 2021 compared with about 17.75 lakh units registered in the year-ago period.

Of the total 19,22,418 newly registered vehicles in 2021, 13,16,216 were motorcycles, 3,46,197 private cars and 1,26,551 transport category vehicles such as buses, trucks and taxis, which need permits to operate, as per the transport department data. In the year-ago period, of the 17,75,737 new vehicles registered, 12,81,556 were motorcycles, 2,57,529 private cars and 1,19,304 were transport category vehicles.

These vehicles were registered at the four RTO offices in Mumbai last year and of these, the highest 52,702 vehicles were registered in Wadala RTO office, which has jurisdiction of entire eastern suburbs of the city, as per transport department data.

Vehicle registration in the state has picked up after a dip of 23.16 per cent in 2020 as compared to registration of over 23.10 lakh vehicles in 2019, which were registered at 50 Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) across the state. Thus, despite an uptick in new vehicle registrations in the state last year, the figure remained significantly low when compared to the pre-Covid level in 2019.

Though the vehicle registrations went up last year, the motor vehicles department is still sceptical about achieving the revenue target of ₹10,000 crore for the current financial year. "Vehicle registrations were affected due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and they later slowed down due to shortage of chipset," state transport commissioner Avinash Dhakne told PTI.

The department has been struggling to achieve revenue targets since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, and even in last fiscal, the revenue target could not be achieved due to the drop in vehicle registrations, Dhakne added.