Chhindwara RTO (MP-28): Office and code after Pandhurna

Vehicles registered in Chhindwara district carry MP-28, the code of the Additional Regional Transport Office (ARTO) in Chhindwara town. The district lost Pandhurna in 2023, when Pandhurna was made a district in its own right, so the map behind that code is smaller than it once was.

A Chhindwara plate such as MP 28 AB 1234 splits into four parts, where MP names Madhya Pradesh, 28 names the Chhindwara office, AB is the letter series and 1234 is the four-digit number assigned to one particular vehicle.

Worth knowing: There is no sign in official sources that MP-28 cars in Pandhurna were renumbered when the new district was formed, and an owner who later settles in Jabalpur or Bhopal keeps the old number too, since the code on a Chhindwara plate changes only if the car is re-registered outside Madhya Pradesh or its registration details are changed.

A High Security Registration Plate (HSRP) is part of every new MP-28 car from the day of delivery, since dealers have fitted one on each vehicle sold from 1 April 2019 under Rule 50 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989.

Worth knowing: Owners of an MP-28 vehicle registered earlier arrange the HSRP installation through the booking portal named on the Madhya Pradesh transport department website, which states the date for older vehicles, and the Madhya Pradesh RTO guide has the plate rules in full.

The Vahan office list has a single entry for Chhindwara, MP-28. Seoni (MP-22) and Betul (MP-48) border the district and keep their own offices, and a further code, MP-74, is given for Pandhurna by one directory only.

MP-74 does not appear on the Vahan office list, which stops at MP-71, so treat it as listed but unconfirmed. Jabalpur has its own full Regional Transport Office (RTO) under MP-20 and does not register Chhindwara vehicles.

Registration, licences and RC changes for MP-28 are all handled by the Additional Regional Transport Office in Chhindwara. Directories agree that it stands in Shankaracharya Nagar, towards Parasiya Road. No official source confirms the timings, so check with the Chhindwara office before going.

Chhindwara RTO office, MP-28

The two listings describe the same spot in slightly different words, one naming Vishnu Nagar beside Shankaracharya Nagar and the other a turning off Parasiya Road. Neither is an official address, which is why the table below keeps to the locality.

Chhindwara district is the office’s area. The district website describes 12 tehsils and 9 development blocks, though that count may date from before Pandhurna left in 2023, and a home in any of them is registered at MP-28.

For a household in Pandhurna the answer is not yet clear. The new district exists officially, yet the only code linked to it comes from a single directory and is missing from the Vahan office list, so the safest course is to ask the Chhindwara office or the state transport website before applying.

No official list of the areas under the MP-28 office is available, which leaves the RC address as the deciding factor.

Worth knowing: Moving from one Chhindwara address to another needs only an updated RC, and the MP-28 number stays on the car.

No Chhindwara-specific rate exists, as an MP-28 vehicle pays Madhya Pradesh lifetime tax as a percentage of its standard price, and the state’s published rate is reported as 8% for a car below ₹10 lakhs, which owners should check on Vahan before paying.

The fees at the Chhindwara office are set nationally under Rule 81, so an owner in Seoni or Betul is charged exactly the same. They are collected on Vahan, and a dealer selling a new car pays them during registration.

Worked out for Chhindwara: Registering a financed first car at MP-28 means ₹600 for registration, ₹200 for the smart card RC and ₹1,500 to record the hypothecation, so the office’s share of the bill is ₹2,300, with lifetime tax charged separately.

A fifteenth birthday brings a ₹5,000 renewal for that car, and the charge doubles to ₹10,000 after 20 years. An owner who renews late pays an extra ₹500 for each month on a car, against ₹300 a month for a motorcycle.

Worth knowing: These are Rule 81 fees only, and the lifetime tax, the HSRP and any service charge are billed apart from them on the Vahan receipt.

The dealer applies on Vahan and the Chhindwara ARTO issues the MP-28 number

For a new car, the registration work is mostly the dealer’s. The showroom submits the Vahan application with the owner’s Chhindwara address and pays the tax and fees, after which the ARTO approves it and the car receives an MP-28 number.

An MP-28 car sold within Madhya Pradesh keeps its registration number. The sale is reported on Form 29, the transfer is applied for on Form 30 with both signatures, and the fee for a car comes to ₹300.

A buyer who will register the car in another state first needs a No Objection Certificate (NOC), which the Chhindwara ARTO provides. In every case the insurance has to pass to the buyer within 14 days.

Removing a loan (hypothecation) from the RC in Chhindwara

After the last instalment, the lender’s NOC and Form 35 go in through Vahan, and the office reissues the RC without the bank’s name for free, as the Madhya Pradesh RTO guide explains.

Owners in Chhindwara can begin almost every task online, with the Vahan portal used for vehicles and the Sarathi portal for licences, before the file reaches the MP-28 office.

Duplicate RC and RC status check in Chhindwara

If the RC of an MP-28 car is lost or damaged, a duplicate is requested on Form 26 via Vahan at ₹300 for a car, and its progress shows when you check your RC status with the Kiwi Insurance tool.

Driving licence services in Chhindwara

A learner in Chhindwara applies and picks a test slot on Sarathi, then attends the office for the driving test. Renewals are made on Sarathi as well, as our Madhya Pradesh RTO guide sets down for each licence service.

Fines in Chhindwara follow the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, so an uninsured vehicle draws ₹2,000 on the first occasion and ₹4,000 on later ones, under section 196.

Madhya Pradesh also issues e-challans through an e-detection system at national and state highway toll booths. Settle any challan on echallan.parivahan.gov.in, and find other fines in our Madhya Pradesh RTO guide.

A car brought into Chhindwara from another state may be driven on its old plates for a while, but after more than 12 months here it has to be registered again with an MP-28 number. Cars from elsewhere in Madhya Pradesh are exempt from that step and only need the new address on their RC.

How lifetime tax is worked out for a car from another state

The tax on an incoming car is a fraction of the new-car amount, beginning at 93% for a car under a year old and falling to 16% beyond 11 years. For a ₹7 lakh car aged four and a half, that is ₹7 lakh × 8% × 65% = ₹36,400 at the reported rate, to be confirmed on Vahan.

For an owner leaving Madhya Pradesh, the order is reversed, and the Chhindwara ARTO issues the NOC on Form 28 before the car is registered in its new state.

Worth knowing: Inform your insurer of the new address on arrival and again after the MP-28 number is issued, and the Madhya Pradesh RTO guide prints the complete age table.

Owners whose work moves them across state lines can ask for a Bharat series (BH) number in place of MP-28, removing the need for an NOC at each move. It is available to government, defence and public sector employees, and to private sector staff of a firm present in 4 or more states or union territories, who submit Form 60.

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. Tax on a BH car falls due every 2 years, at 8% below ₹10 lakhs, and the Madhya Pradesh RTO guide explains the rest.

Forms at the MP-28 counter are the national set used across India, and Vahan or Sarathi now completes most of them, with the PDF available if the office still asks for paper.

Hand the forms to the Chhindwara ARTO, and download any form not shown from the Parivahan Sewa website.