Vehicle Number Plates: Rs. 3 bn deal targets 400,000 backlog
The vehicle number plate issue in Sri Lanka is transitioning from a 10-month delay in new number issuances to over 400,000 newly registered cars, vans, buses, lorries motor cycles, and three wheelers to a resumption phase, following the awarding of a new contract to South Asian Technologies (Pvt) Ltd. The market has been chaotic due to the delay in the issue of number plates, particularly owing to surging vehicle imports after the ban was lifted.
The Motor Traffic Department (MTD) has signed a Rs. 3 billion, five‑year agreement with this new company recently to restart the printing of vehicle number plates, Transport Ministry officials confirmed.
The firm is required to begin production within three months, though initial discussions suggest work may start in two. With 10 printing machines planned, the project aims to swiftly issue the accumulated number plates, they said.
As a temporary measure, Police have allowed vehicles to operate with temporary plates provided the numbers are clearly visible. The crisis was caused by a long delay in awarding a new contract after the previous supplier’s contract expired in April 2025.
There have been concerns regarding the cost of the new tender, which some industry sources suggested was higher than other bids.
The Ministry of Transport and the MTD are prioritising the rapid issuance of plates to clear the significant backlog. Printing will be conducted at the MTD’s main office in Werahera.
Future plates will be issued in different colours for easier identification and will eventually drop provincial prefixes to streamline ownership transfers, a senior official of the ministry disclosed.
Plates for most vehicles will now include seven safety features, such as UV-sensitive colour-changing elements and invisible ink patterns for verification by police.
New plates will be linked to a central database via Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, storing maintenance and emission records directly on the digital identifier.
RFID is a “wireless technology using radio waves to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects, animals, or people” and is “enabling contactless data transfer over short or long distances without the need to have a line of sight, making it an extremely efficient method compared to the barcode system”.
The new plates will gradually remove provincial prefixes (e.g., WP, CP), allowing vehicles to be sold across provinces without requiring a plate change.
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