Gorakhpur RTO: UP-53 office, licence centre, and code

Every vehicle registered in Gorakhpur district carries a UP-53 number from the Regional Transport Office (RTO), Gorakhpur, one of the regional offices of the Uttar Pradesh Transport Department. The office itself has moved. News reports say vehicle work shifted to a new building at GIDA Sector 22 in August 2021, while licence work went to a training institute at ITI Charganwa.

Reading UP 53 AB 1234 from the left, the first two letters name the state, 53 points to the Gorakhpur office, AB is the series and 1234 is the four-digit number. The codes either side are easy to misread, as Deoria is UP-52 and Maharajganj, which was part of Gorakhpur until 1989, is UP-56.

Worth knowing: A UP-53 plate records the office that first registered the car. Moving house within Uttar Pradesh, from Gorakhpur to Lucknow for example, does not change the code. The code changes only on a fresh registration outside Uttar Pradesh or a change to the car’s registration details.

A UP-53 car follows the same plate rule as any vehicle in India. Rule 50 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 calls for a High Security Registration Plate (HSRP), and a new car sold since 1 April 2019 leaves the showroom with one already fitted.

Worth knowing: For an older Gorakhpur vehicle, book the HSRP installation on the booking portal that the Uttar Pradesh Transport Department website names, and check the date for your vehicle there, then read our Uttar Pradesh RTO guide for the plate rules in full.

Gorakhpur district has one code, UP-53. Three of the codes around it belong to districts that were once part of Gorakhpur, which is why people still link Basti, Deoria and Maharajganj plates with the Gorakhpur office.

Basti was separated in 1865, Deoria in 1946 and Maharajganj on 2 October 1989, according to the Gorakhpur and Maharajganj district websites. Each now registers vehicles under its own code.

Gorakhpur RTO work is done in two places. Registration, fitness, renewal and tax are handled in the regional office building in GIDA, and licence applications and driving tests at the Driver Training Institute in ITI Charganwa, local news reports from 2021 say.

Gorakhpur RTO office, UP-53

Amar Ujala reported that vehicle work would run from the new GIDA Sector 22 building from 16 August 2021, replacing the Civil Lines office the RTO had used for about 45 years. Some directories still print the Civil Lines address, so treat an old listing with care.

Where Gorakhpur driving licences are handled

From 9 July 2021, learner and permanent licences, renewals and driving tests moved out of the RTO office to the Driver Training Institute at ITI Charganwa, Dainik Jagran reported, describing five test tracks and a simulator there. Maruti Suzuki says Gorakhpur was among the first five Uttar Pradesh test tracks it automated.

The UP-53 office serves all seven tehsils of Gorakhpur district. Homes in Maharajganj, Deoria and Kushinagar go to their own offices, even where an older Registration Certificate (RC) or a family link still points to Gorakhpur.

Not sure which office keeps your file? Enter the registration number in the finder at the top of this page and it names the registering office.

Registration fees are national, so the Gorakhpur office charges the same as the Deoria or Basti office for the same service. Payment goes through the Vahan portal, which a dealer handles on your behalf for a new car.

A Gorakhpur example: Buy a new car on a loan and register it under UP-53, and the RTO fees are ₹600 for registration, ₹200 for the smart card RC and ₹1,500 for the loan entry, ₹2,300 in all, with road tax on top.

An older UP-53 car pays ₹5,000 to renew its registration at 15 years and ₹10,000 once it is past 20. A late renewal adds ₹500 for each month on a car and ₹300 on a motorcycle.

Worth knowing: Service and postal charges, the High Security Registration Plate (HSRP) and road tax are separate from the Rule 81 fee, so the total on a Gorakhpur receipt is higher than the table alone.

For a buyer with a Gorakhpur district address, the dealer registers the new car on the Vahan portal and the UP-53 office approves it. A buyer who lives in Deoria or Maharajganj gets that district’s code, wherever the showroom is.

A UP-53 car sold to a buyer elsewhere in Uttar Pradesh keeps its number, and only the owner’s name changes. Form 29 comes from the seller, Form 30 carries both signatures, and a car transfer costs ₹300.

A buyer in another state, Bihar for example, needs a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Gorakhpur office before registering the car there. Whichever state the buyer is in, the insurance must be moved to them within 14 days.

Removing a loan (hypothecation) from the RC in Gorakhpur

Once the loan is repaid, apply on Vahan with Form 35 and the lender’s No Objection Certificate, and the UP-53 RC is reissued without the lender, at no fee. The document checklist for a UP-53 loan closure is in our Uttar Pradesh RTO guide.

Gorakhpur applications start on two national websites, the Vahan portal for vehicle work and the Sarathi portal for licences. The applications then go to two different sites in the city, the GIDA office for vehicles and ITI Charganwa for licence tests.

Duplicate RC and RC status check in Gorakhpur

A lost or damaged UP-53 RC is replaced through Form 26 on Vahan, for ₹300 on a car. To see where a registration stands, use the Kiwi Insurance RC status tool.

Driving licence services in Gorakhpur

Book the learner’s test, the driving test or a licence renewal on Sarathi, then attend in person at ITI Charganwa. The wider list of Vahan and Sarathi services for Gorakhpur residents is in our Uttar Pradesh RTO guide.

Driving uninsured costs the same in Gorakhpur as anywhere in India: ₹2,000 for a first offence and ₹4,000 for a repeat, under section 196 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, as amended in 2019.

Uttar Pradesh may settle some offences at its own compounding amounts, so pay the sum on the challan for your UP-53 vehicle, on echallan.parivahan.gov.in or in mParivahan, and look up any other offence in our Uttar Pradesh RTO guide.

A car already registered in Uttar Pradesh, in Lucknow for example, keeps its number after a move to Gorakhpur, and only the RC address needs updating. A Bihar or Delhi car is another matter: After more than 12 months in Uttar Pradesh it needs a fresh registration and a UP-53 number.

If you are leaving Uttar Pradesh, the same steps apply in reverse: The Gorakhpur office issues the NOC on Form 28, the new state registers the car, and the unused UP road tax can be claimed back.

Worth knowing: Inform your insurer twice, after the address changes and again after the UP-53 number is issued. For the full form list, turn to our Uttar Pradesh RTO guide.

A Bharat series (BH) number suits a Gorakhpur owner whose job moves between states, as the car can follow without a No Objection Certificate (NOC). Government, defence and public sector employees can apply, as can a private sector employee with Form 60 if the company has offices in at least 4 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. The BH tax, 8% for a car below ₹10 lakhs, is paid every 2 years rather than once, and our Uttar Pradesh RTO guide explains the rest.

The forms are the same in Gorakhpur as in Deoria or Delhi. Most are completed online on Vahan or Sarathi, and the PDF is there for an office that still asks for paper.

UP-53 vehicle forms go to the GIDA office and licence forms to ITI Charganwa, and any form missing from this grid is on the Parivahan Sewa website.