Digital number plate soon

Communications Minister Obaidul Quader said on Wednesday the government would provide digital number plates for automobiles 'soon' to bring discipline in the transport sector and prevent vehicle hijacking on highway.

"This (digital number plate) will help identify a vehicle even if it flees the scene after an accident. Also, it will help detect the use of fake number plates on vehicles and the use of the same number on different vehicles," he said.

The minister went to Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory (BMTF) at Gazipur to inspect the 'manufacturing of digital number plate project'. The Army-run BMTF is executing the project as a contractor of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA).

He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina would launch digital number plate scheme at her office on Oct 31.

Quader said the system will have a tracking device installed with retro-reflective number plates and radiofrequency identification tags.

He said the project work was given to BMTF considering the security and safety issues. "They're completing the project work quickly. The number of road accidents will remarkably come down once after the project is implemented."

Project Director retired Brig Gen Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury said BMTF formally took over the task on May 31. He said it would be possible to manufacture over 10,000 digital number plates for vehicles by Oct 31.

"It will be possible to manufacture more than 200,000 digital number plates once the project work starts in full swing from November."

Chowdhury said all the motor vehicles are likely to get the retro-reflective registration number plate with radio frequency identification system within a year.