Pages

Friday, March 30, 2012

HSRP REGISTRATION PLATES FOR NEW VEHICLES BY APRIL

By April, new vehicles hitting the city roads will come with high security registration plates (HSRP). The existing vehicles would also have to comply within two years.


A senior Transport Department official said that a schedule is being drawn and each vehicle owner would be given a specific date to visit their respective Regional Transport Office (RTO) for replacing the existing number plates with the HSRP.



The move to introduce the high security registration plates has been under review since 1989. After the Supreme Court criticised the State governments in September last year for the repeated delays in implementation, most of the States floated tenders for the project. The Supreme Court on Friday set a deadline of March 31.



In Tamil Nadu, five entities have prequalified, based on a set of technical criteria, and the financial bids were opened last week. The Transport Department official said that an evaluation is being carried out and the company that will implement the project will be announced shortly.



Based on the experience of other cities, the new embossed high-security plates are expected to be available for around Rs.300, which would have to be paid at the time of registration.



While the scheme would be implemented throughout the State, a pilot implementation would happen in a few RTOs in Chennai first. Eventually embossing/fixing stations would come up within the premises of all the RTOs and unit offices in the State.


The official said that the number plates would have features such as a laser hologram and a non-removable/non-reusable snap lock to prevent counterfeiting and duplication.


Any attempt to remove or replace the number plate will damage the snap lock making it impossible to install any other number plate in the vehicle.


All plates would also have a unique identification number and can be tracked all across India, the official added. It would also eliminate the problem of fancy number plates.





Tata Mini CAT Air-powered Car

Tata Motors plans to launch the OneCat, a car running on compressed air.

The car is expected to be a five-seater with a glass fiber body, which would weigh just 350 kg and cost just about Rs 2 lakh.
The project is backed for an undisclosed sum by Tata, which says it may also use the technology for power generation.

 A BBC report has pointed out that Tata's backing makes the idea much more marketable and that the Indian company will be putting finishing touches
to the engine.

 French engineer Negre is planning to sell the car in India, the report said. He hopes that the first buyers of the compressed air car will be people who care about the environment and would sell it for an economical price.

Tata would be the only big firm Negre will license to sell the car and sales will be limited to India.




Sunday, March 25, 2012

New Maruti Suzuki Ritz Facelift

Maruti Suzuki is all set to launch a mild facelift of the Ritz in the coming few weeks. Praveen Iyer spotted the vehicle, without any camouflage in Delhi recently, which possibly looks like the Maruti Suzuki office. One can see the A-Star, Swift and Ertiga standing right behind. Maruti Suzuki could possibly be preparing the Ritz facelift for its TV shoot as the launch could happen anytime soon. A slight price hike of Rs. 10,000/- is expected on this facelift.

The changes to the front of the Ritz make the vehicle look more aggressive. The hood has been redesigned, while the grille is now slightly bigger. The fog lamp surrounding has been completely re-designed as well, while the bumper too gets a revision in design. The rear seems to have been left almost untouched but Maruti Suzuki can take this opportunity to address crucial issues like reducing the rattles and improving the quality. An automatic version could be offered as well, but this is yet to be confirmed.

There will be no major mechanical changes to the car and the Maruti Suzuki Ritz will continue to draw power from the 1.2-litre K-Series petrol engine and the 1.3-litre Fiat Multijet diesel engine. Both these engines are extremely frugal and offer a good combination of power and economy to the Ritz.