Surat RTO offices: GJ-05 Nanpura, GJ-28 Pal, GJ-19 Bardoli

Surat district has three RTO codes, and the address on your papers decides which office registers your vehicle. Nanpura is the main office and Bardoli an assistant office. The third, at Pal, is listed by insurers as ARTO Surat (Pal).

The plate GJ 05 AB 1234 belongs to a car registered at Nanpura, and it splits into four parts. GJ shows it is a Gujarat car, 05 is the code of the Surat office at Nanpura, AB is the letter series and 1234 is the four-digit number.

Worth knowing: The code tells you where the car was first registered, not where the owner lives now. A GJ-19 car from Bardoli keeps its code when it is sold to someone in Athwa or when its owner moves within Gujarat. Only a re-registration in another state, or a change to its registration details, gives it a new code.

Plate features, sticker colours and the notifications behind the rule are on our Gujarat RTO guide.

Surat district has three codes of its own. A GJ-21 car parked in Athwa is a Navsari registration, though, and the second table lists it with the other neighbouring codes people take for Surat ones.

The Commissionerate of Transport, Gujarat names two of the three on its own office pages: RTO Surat (GJ-5) and ARTO Bardoli (GJ-19). GJ-28 appears as ARTO Surat (Pal) in insurer listings that cite the Parivahan Sewa website.

Each office registers vehicles and handles licences, transfers, address changes and road tax for owners whose address falls in its part of the district. The street details below come from published directories, so confirm them before a trip.

Surat RTO office at Nanpura, GJ-05

RTO Surat is the Commissionerate’s own name for the GJ-05 office, the Regional Transport Office for the district. Directories place it on Ring Road in Nanpura.

Take the full postal address from the official office page before you post papers to Nanpura.

Pal RTO office, GJ-28

Insurers, citing the Parivahan Sewa website, list this office as ARTO Surat (Pal). It registers vehicles under GJ-28. No street address for it is published consistently, so check the Commissionerate of Transport, Gujarat website before you travel.

Bardoli RTO office, GJ-19

ARTO Bardoli is the name the Commissionerate gives the GJ-19 office, an Assistant Regional Transport Office in Bardoli, in Surat district. Owners on the Bardoli side of the district register here rather than at Nanpura.

Worth knowing: An owner in Bardoli who needs a driving test, or a counter service that works by slot, books it on Sarathi first. The same applies at Nanpura and Pal.

Your office is set by the address on your Registration Certificate, not by the showroom. No official area-by-area list is published in a form we could check, so the table gives examples only. Look up your own vehicle on the Vahan portal to see which office holds its record.

For a vehicle that is already registered, type its number, say GJ05AB1234, into the finder at the top of this page. The office that registered it also keeps its file, and that is where its later work goes.

Worth knowing: You do not get a new number when you move within Gujarat. Update the address on your Registration Certificate and inform your insurer of the new address.

Surat pays the Gujarat state rate, with no city rate on top. A Varachha owner buying a ₹6 lakh car pays ₹36,000, just as a buyer in Bardoli or anywhere else in Gujarat would.

RTO fees are set nationally, so Nanpura, Pal and Bardoli charge exactly what the Navsari or Ahmedabad offices do. The fee is paid on the Vahan portal, and for a new car the dealer pays it while filing the registration.

Worked example: A Varachha buyer who takes a new car on a bank loan pays ₹600 for registration, ₹200 for the smart card RC and ₹1,500 to record the loan. That is ₹2,300 in RTO fees, before any Gujarat road tax.

Once a GJ-05 car turns 15, renewing its registration costs ₹5,000, and ₹10,000 after 20 years. Miss the renewal date and the late fee runs at ₹500 for each month on a car, against ₹300 on a motorcycle.

Car registration in Surat starts at the dealer, who files the application on Vahan, but the RTO that registers the vehicle is the one covering your address. A buyer in Athwa receives a GJ-05 number and a buyer in Bardoli a GJ-19 number, wherever the car was bought.

When a GJ-05, GJ-28 or GJ-19 car changes hands, the Surat office that holds its record makes the change, whether the papers go in on Vahan or at the counter. Form 29 comes from the seller, Form 30 carries both signatures, and Surat charges ₹300 to transfer a car.

If the RC still shows a bank loan (hypothecation), clear it first with the lender’s No Objection Certificate (NOC) and Form 35, at no fee. The full rules are on our Gujarat RTO guide.

Surat owners do most RTO work on the Vahan portal for vehicles and the Sarathi portal for licences. The application still lands at Nanpura, Pal or Bardoli, whichever covers the address on it.

Duplicate RC and RC status check in Surat

A lost or damaged RC is replaced with a duplicate on Form 26, for ₹300 on a car. To see a GJ number’s current record, check your RC status on Kiwi Insurance.

Driving licence services in Surat

A first-time applicant in Katargam takes the learner’s licence on Sarathi, books the test slot there and sits the test in person. Every other online service is on our Gujarat RTO guide.

Stopped on Ring Road with an expired policy, a GJ-05 driver pays ₹2,000 the first time and ₹4,000 after that, under section 196 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

Gujarat compounds some offences at its own amounts, so pay what the Surat challan shows, on echallan.parivahan.gov.in or in mParivahan. The full list is on our Gujarat RTO guide.

A car from elsewhere in Gujarat keeps its number in Surat. A car from another state must be re-registered with a GJ number once it has been kept in Gujarat for more than 12 months, under section 47 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

If you are leaving Gujarat, the same steps apply in reverse: The Nanpura, Pal or Bardoli office named on your RC issues the NOC on Form 28, and the car is then registered in the state you move to.

Worth knowing: An owner who moves to Varachha from another state informs the insurer twice, once when the address changes and again when the car gets its GJ-05 number. For forms and refunds, see our Gujarat RTO guide.

BH is for the Surat owner who expects a transfer to another state. The plate is valid everywhere, so the next posting needs no No Objection Certificate (NOC). Defence and government staff qualify, and so does a private employee whose company has offices in 4 or more states or union territories, with Form 60 from the employer.

The format is YY BH #### XX, where YY is the year of first registration, the four digits are allotted at random, and XX represents the alphabetic series, which can be a single letter or two letters. It is black on a white plate, like any other private car.

BH tax is paid every 2 years rather than as Gujarat’s one-time charge. The rates are on our Gujarat RTO guide.

The forms are national ones from the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, and most are now filled in on Vahan or Sarathi. Use a PDF only when Nanpura, Pal or Bardoli asks for paper.

Before you submit: Check the document list on the Parivahan Sewa website, which also has every other RTO form.