Himachal Pradesh: RTO code list and details

You can read an HP number plate in four parts. In HP 63 AB 1234, a car registered in Shimla, HP stands for Himachal Pradesh, 63 is the Shimla Regional Transport Office, AB is the letter series and 1234 is the four-digit number. A car registered at the district office in Dharamshala would show 68 in place of 63.

If the owner of a Shimla car later moves to Dharamshala, the car still shows HP 63, as the code records the office that registered it, not where the owner lives now. The HP code is replaced only when the car is registered again in another state or when its registration details are changed.

Worth knowing: An HP code points to an office, not to a district. Two cars from the same district can carry very different numbers, depending on which sub-divisional office registered them.

A car bought new in Shimla since 1 April 2019 left the dealer with a High Security Registration Plate (HSRP) already fitted, as the manufacturer and dealer supply it. The plate is required by Rule 50 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989.

An HP-68 car in Dharamshala has needed it ever since the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) issued G.S.R. 1162(E) on 4 December 2018. S.O. 6052 followed on 6 December 2018.

HP cars registered before April 2019

An HP car first registered in, say, 2015 at Dharamshala must have an HSRP fitted by the date the state sets. To book the installation, use the HSRP booking portal named on the website of the Transport Department, Government of Himachal Pradesh, where you can also check which date applies to your HP car.

Himachal Pradesh uses codes from HP-01 to HP-99, split between district Regional Transport Offices and sub-divisional offices. The list below covers the district offices and the sub-divisional offices people ask about most.

Published lists of the full HP series disagree with each other, so the codes below are the ones that are consistently reported. Confirm your own office with the Transport Department, Government of Himachal Pradesh before you visit.

Shimla carries more codes than any other district. HP-63 is the Regional Transport Office, HP-01, HP-02 and HP-03 are urban offices, and HP-51 and HP-52 cover the rural areas, with further codes for the outlying sub-divisions.

Theog uses HP-09, Rohru uses HP-10, Rampur Bushahr uses HP-06 and Kotkhai uses HP-99, and all of them are in Shimla district. Which office registers your car depends on the address on your paperwork.

Most states give one code to each district. Himachal Pradesh gives one to each office, and in a mountainous state that means a lot of offices, since people should not have to cross a range to register a car.

District offices, HP-63 to HP-73

Each district has a Regional Transport Office with a code in this range, such as HP-63 for Shimla, HP-65 for Mandi and HP-68 for Dharamshala in Kangra district.

Sub-divisional offices

The lower codes belong to Registering and Licensing Authorities in the sub-divisions, such as HP-14 Solan, HP-22 Hamirpur and HP-58 Manali. They register vehicles and issue licences in the same way.

Worth knowing: The code makes no difference to your insurance. The premium follows the car and the registered address, not the office that issued the number.

Himachal Pradesh calls it token tax, and it is charged on the price of the vehicle. The rate depends on the car’s price and on where it was bought: A Shimla owner who buys from a Shimla dealer pays the lower rate, and one who buys in Chandigarh pays 2% more.

For example: A ₹6 lakhs car bought from a dealer in Dharamshala pays 6%, or ₹36,000 of token tax. The same car bought outside the state pays 8%, which is ₹48,000. On a new car, this amount is normally part of the on-road price the dealer quotes.

Token tax is paid on the Parivahan Sewa portal or through the Transport Department’s own online token tax service. A Solan owner paying today should still check the amount Vahan shows, as the state can revise its rates.

A new car registered at HP-68 Dharamshala pays a ₹600 registration fee, the same as at HP-63 Shimla. The fees below come from Rule 81 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, and are paid on Vahan or at the office when the Registration Certificate (RC) is issued, renewed or changed.

Paid on top: The HSRP, the token tax and any service charge set by Himachal Pradesh come on top of these fees. A Shimla owner sees each item listed on Vahan before paying.

Buy a new car from a dealer in Shimla or Dharamshala and the dealer will usually file its registration on the Vahan portal. The token tax and registration fee are part of the price you pay, and the RTO issues the Registration Certificate (RC) once it has approved the application.

Some registrations still need a document check, an inspection or an RTO visit, depending on the car and the transaction. For most new cars bought in Shimla or Kangra, the five steps above are what happens.

Important to know: Nothing stops a Dharamshala buyer from arranging car insurance before delivery day. The dealer asks only for proof of a valid policy, so there is time to compare plans.

Sell a car registered at HP-63 Shimla and the transfer is handled by the Shimla office, or on Vahan, even when the buyer is from Kangra. The steps below follow that sale.

Removing a loan (hypothecation) from the RC in Himachal Pradesh

Take a Solan car bought on a loan. After the last instalment, the owner collects the lender’s No Objection Certificate (NOC) and Form 35, applies on Vahan, and receives an updated RC without the loan.

Good to know: When that Solan car was first financed, the lender used Form 34 to put the loan on the RC.

An owner in Kullu and one in Una use the same national Parivahan services. For an HP car, the Vahan portal is where you register it, pay tax and change the RC or the owner, and the Sarathi portal is where you apply for or renew a driving licence. Vehicle details and challans show up in mParivahan and on the e-challan service.

Some tasks still end at the office counter, depending on the service and the RTO.

Duplicate RC and RC status check in Himachal Pradesh

Say the RC of an HP-68 car from Dharamshala is lost, stolen or damaged: The owner applies for a duplicate on Vahan with Form 26 and pays the fee shown in the fees table. Parivahan Sewa and mParivahan show where any HP registration stands, and you can also check your RC status with Kiwi Insurance.

Driving licence services in Himachal Pradesh

A learner in Hamirpur and a driver renewing in Solan both go through Sarathi, which also handles the driving test and the International Driving Permit. The paper versions are Form 2 and Form 4A in the forms grid.

A challan on an HP-63 car is worked out from the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, so the amounts below apply in Shimla as in the rest of India. Some offences can be compounded by Himachal Pradesh at its own amounts, and the challan you receive states the amount to pay.

To check a Dharamshala car for pending challans, enter its HP number on echallan.parivahan.gov.in or in mParivahan, where you can also pay them.

Worth knowing: A Kangra owner whose policy has lapsed risks the ₹2,000 fine for driving uninsured, and ₹4,000 the next time. Renewing the policy on time keeps that line off a challan.

Documents can differ by vehicle, state and office, so confirm the current process with the HP office or on the Parivahan Sewa website before you start. If you are leaving Himachal Pradesh for a state such as Punjab, the same steps are followed in the opposite order: Your HP office issues the NOC, Punjab registers and taxes the car, and Himachal Pradesh refunds any unused token tax on application.

A Bharat series (BH) number plate works anywhere in India and shows no HP or other state code. So an owner who is posted from Himachal Pradesh to another state does not need a No Objection Certificate (NOC) or a fresh registration there. It suits people such as an officer posted to Shimla for two years, or a public sector employee transferred to Dharamshala.

It began with G.S.R. 594(E), a Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) notification dated 26 August 2021 that took effect on 15 September 2021. Since G.S.R. 879(E) of 14 December 2022, a Bharat series (BH) car can also be sold to a new owner, and an existing registration can be converted. 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.

Compared with Himachal Pradesh: A ₹6 lakhs car bought in the state pays 6% token tax once, while the same car on a BH number pays 8% every 2 years.

Keep in mind: An HP owner on a BH number who is posted to Punjab has no Himachal Pradesh token tax refund to claim, as the BH tax is paid 2 years at a time.

A form filed in Shimla is the same as one filed anywhere in India, as the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 set one national list. Most are now done online on Vahan or Sarathi, and the PDF is useful when an office still needs a paper form.

Selling a used car in Una, for example, means filing Form 29 and Form 30 together. Once the buyer’s name is on the RC, there are 14 days to move the insurance.

Worth knowing: Forms are filed with the office that issued the RC: An HP-63 car is handled in Shimla, an HP-64 car in Solan. A Shimla office may want address proof or a PUC certificate as well, so first check the document list on the Parivahan Sewa website. For anything not shown here, see the complete list of RTO forms on the Parivahan Sewa website.

Worth knowing: A used car bought in Solan stays fully covered if the RC transfer and the policy transfer are both done within the same two weeks.