Dhule RTO: MH-18 office on the Mumbai-Agra Road

Dhule district has a single registering office, so every car registered here starts with MH-18. The neighbour that causes mix-ups is Nandurbar, which was part of Dhule district until 1998 and now registers its own cars as MH-39.

On a plate reading MH 18 AB 1234, MH means Maharashtra and 18 means the car was first registered at the Dhule RTO. The two letters, AB, are the series, and the last block, 1234, is the four-digit number.

Worth knowing: An MH 39 plate is from Nandurbar, not Dhule, even though the Nandurbar office reports to Dhule. An MH-18 car keeps its 18 when it moves to Jalgaon or Pune, as the code on a Dhule plate changes only if the car is re-registered outside Maharashtra or its registration details are changed, so a Dhule car sold to a buyer in Nandurbar also stays MH-18.

Bought your MH-18 car new on or after 1 April 2019? Then its High Security Registration Plate (HSRP) was already on it, and the state transport department says you need not apply again.

Owners of older Dhule cars book the installation through the booking portal named on the Maharashtra transport department website, choosing MH-18 as the office. Fitment at a centre carries no extra charge, and a fitment at home is charged extra. The wider plate rules are explained on our Maharashtra RTO guide.

Dhule has one code, MH-18. The transport department lists no second office anywhere in the district, so there is no Dhule rural or sub-office code to look for.

The usual confusion is MH-39. Nandurbar became a separate district with effect from 1 July 1998, and its Deputy RTO on Sakri Road in Nandurbar now issues MH-39 numbers, even though the office still reports to Dhule.

All Dhule RTO work, from a new registration to a driving test, goes through one office on the Mumbai-Agra Road. Check with the Dhule office before you travel, as its opening hours could not be confirmed from an official source.

Dhule RTO office, MH-18

The Regional Transport Office, Dhule, works out of the government Dudh Bhavan building at Mohadi Upnagar, on National Highway 3. It is also the parent office of the Nandurbar Deputy RTO and runs the border check posts at Hadakhed, Navapur and Gawali.

Worth knowing: A driving test at MH-18 needs a slot booked on the Sarathi portal before the day, so do that first and carry the booking with you.

With only one office in the district, the answer for any Dhule address is MH-18. What decides it is the address on your Registration Certificate (RC), so a Shirpur family that buys its car in Nashik still gets an MH-18 number.

There is no official area list for MH-18, but the transport department names no other office in the district, which is why all four talukas point here. A quick test is to type the number into the finder at the top of this page.

Worth knowing: Shifting from Sakri to Dhule city, or from Dhule to Nandurbar, does not change the plate. Record the new address on the RC, and inform your insurer as well, so that both documents show where the car now stays.

Three Maharashtra districts share a border with Dhule: Nandurbar, Nashik and Jalgaon. A car registered in any of them carries that district’s code, not MH-18. For every other office, open our Maharashtra RTO guide.

Put simply, if you buy a ₹6 lakh petrol car in your own name in Dhule, the road tax is 11%, or ₹66,000, and the road safety cess comes on top.

There is nothing Dhule-specific about RTO fees: The amounts are fixed by central rules, so MH-18 charges what Jalgaon or Nashik charges. They are collected online through the Vahan portal, and on a new car the dealer pays them for you within the on-road price.

For example: Buy a car on finance in Dhule and the RTO part of the bill is ₹2,300, which is ₹600 to register it, ₹200 for the smart card and ₹1,500 to note the loan. Road tax is extra.

An MH-18 car that reaches 15 years needs a renewal costing ₹5,000, and ₹10,000 once it is past 20. Miss the renewal date and a car pays ₹500 more for each month, a motorcycle ₹300.

A Dhule buyer settles the number plate, the road tax and any state service charge on top of these.

When you buy a new car, the dealer does the registration on Vahan, and for a Dhule district address it goes to the MH-18 office. Buy in Nashik or Jalgaon if you like, the number still comes from Dhule, since your address decides it.

Selling an MH-18 car? The transfer is done at the Dhule office or on Vahan. You, as the seller, give notice on Form 29, you and the buyer sign Form 30, and the fee is ₹300 for a car, ₹150 for a motorcycle.

Within 14 days the buyer should transfer the insurance too.

Removing a loan (hypothecation) from the RC in Dhule

Paid off the car loan? File Form 35 on Vahan with the bank’s No Objection Certificate (NOC), and the RC is reissued without the lender, at no fee. Every document needed is listed on our Maharashtra RTO guide.

For most Dhule RTO tasks you can start at home, on the Vahan portal for anything about the car and the Sarathi portal for licences. In Maharashtra the learner licence test itself is taken online, with Aadhaar authentication.

Duplicate RC and RC status check in Dhule

If your RC is lost, stolen or torn, apply to MH-18 on Form 26 and pay the duplicate fee in the fees table. To look up an RC, use the Kiwi Insurance RC status check.

Driving licence services in Dhule

Licence applications go in on Sarathi, and the driving test happens at the Dhule office. For the complete list of services, see our Maharashtra RTO guide.

To check for a challan on an MH-18 car, search its number on echallan.parivahan.gov.in or in the mParivahan app, and pay there. The challan lists the amount.

More fines are set out on our Maharashtra RTO guide.

If your car already has an MH number, moving to Dhule only means updating the address. If it comes from Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat or any other state, it needs an MH-18 number once it has spent more than 12 months in Maharashtra.

If you are leaving Maharashtra with an MH-18 car, the same steps apply in reverse: The Dhule office gives you the No Objection Certificate (NOC) on Form 28 without a fee, and you register the car again in the new state.

Worth knowing: The day the RC changes, inform your insurer of the new number or address. Our Maharashtra RTO guide lists every form for the move.

Work in a job that moves you between states? A Bharat series (BH) number from the Dhule dealer, instead of MH-18, means a later posting to Gujarat or Madhya Pradesh needs no No Objection Certificate (NOC) and no fresh registration.

For private sector staff, the proof is Form 60, signed by an employer that has offices in 4 or more states or union territories. 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.

Our Maharashtra RTO guide explains who can apply and the 2-yearly BH tax.

Nearly all of these can be filed on the Vahan portal or the Sarathi portal. If the Dhule office asks for paper, print the PDF and hand it in at MH-18.

Our Maharashtra RTO guide says when each one is needed, and anything else is in the list of RTO forms on the Parivahan Sewa website.

How insurance links to the Dhule RTO

No policy, no registration: Dhule will not register a new car until a valid policy exists. When a used car is sold, the RC goes to the buyer first and the policy within 14 days. If the number changes after a re-registration, inform your insurer so the two match.

Worth knowing: Insurers rate a car by the office that registered it, so an MH-18 car stays Zone B even after you move with it to Pune.