Uttarakhand: RTO code list and details

Uttarakhand RTOs are run by the state Transport Department, through four regional offices and 16 sub-regional offices. As every office has its own number, a plate starts with UK and then the code of the Regional Transport Office (RTO) or sub-regional office that registered the vehicle, such as UK 07 for Dehradun.

A UK plate has four parts, and each one tells you something. Read UK 07 AB 1234 from the left: The first pair, UK, means Uttarakhand, and 07 means the Dehradun RTO. AB is the letter series, and the last part, 1234, is the four-digit number.

Older vehicles cause the most confusion. A vehicle registered before 9 November 2000, when Uttarakhand was formed, carries an Uttar Pradesh number, such as the UP-07 series the Dehradun RTO lists among its old numbers.

The UK-07 code does not change when a Dehradun owner moves to Haldwani or anywhere else in Uttarakhand. Only a fresh registration outside the state, or a change to the vehicle’s registration details, gives it a different code.

Worth knowing: As the code records the registering office and not the owner’s present address, a UK car is free to travel on roads anywhere in India.

To make number plates hard to copy or swap, every vehicle must carry a High Security Registration Plate (HSRP) under Rule 50 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989. Since 1 April 2019, the manufacturer and dealer fit it on every new vehicle, so a new UK car comes with one.

Older Uttarakhand vehicles and HSRP

As the rule applies to every vehicle, a UK car registered before 1 April 2019 also needs an HSRP, fitted by the date the state sets. The rule was notified by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) in G.S.R. 1162(E), dated 4 December 2018, with S.O. 6052 following on 6 December 2018.

Worth knowing: Book the High Security Registration Plate installation through the booking portal named on the Uttarakhand transport department website, and check there which date applies to your UK vehicle.

The list starts at UK-01, Almora, and ends at UK-20, Ranikhet. The state has four regional offices, at Almora, Haldwani, Dehradun and Pauri, and each one looks after a group of sub-regional offices with their own codes.

Since offices can move and new ones can open, this list follows the Transport Department’s own office pages and is updated when they change.

Dehradun RTO uses the code UK-07 and is at 105 Rajpur Road, Dehradun. It is the regional office for six sub-regional offices: Haridwar (UK-08), Tehri (UK-09), Uttarkashi (UK-10), Rishikesh (UK-14), Vikasnagar (UK-16) and Roorkee (UK-17).

As the office is chosen by the address on your Registration Certificate (RC), a car kept in Rishikesh normally belongs to UK-14, not UK-07. If in doubt, the two digits after UK on your plate name the office, and the RTO finder at the top of this page does the same.

Outside the Dehradun region, Uttarakhand has regional offices at Haldwani, Almora and Pauri. Whichever region you live in, the office there handles the same work: Registration, driving licences and road tax.

Haldwani RTO (UK-04)

UK-04 is the code of the Haldwani RTO, whose region takes in Tanakpur (UK-03), Udham Singh Nagar (UK-06), Kashipur (UK-18) and Ramnagar (UK-19).

Almora RTO (UK-01)

UK-01, the first code in Uttarakhand, belongs to the Almora RTO. Its region covers Bageshwar (UK-02), Pithoragarh (UK-05) and Ranikhet (UK-20).

Pauri RTO (UK-12)

The Pauri RTO uses UK-12, and its region covers Karanprayag (UK-11), Rudraprayag (UK-13) and Kotdwar (UK-15).

Road tax in Uttarakhand is a single payment made at a vehicle’s first registration in the state, worked out on its ex-showroom cost including GST. A car pays 8%, 9% or 10% and a two-wheeler 7%, 8% or 9%, the rate rising with the price, under a state notification of 2 January 2019.

For example: The lowest car band ends at ₹5 lakhs, so a car costing that much pays 8% of ₹5,00,000, which is ₹40,000. A green cess is also collected at the first registration, ₹1,500 for a petrol car and ₹3,000 for a diesel car.

Many commuter motorcycles cost between ₹50,000 and ₹1 lakh, so one at ₹80,000 pays 8%, or ₹6,400, plus a ₹500 green cess at registration.

Since the state sets these rates by notification and can revise them, the amount Vahan shows for your vehicle is the one to rely on.

RTO fees are set by Rule 81 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, so they are the same at UK-07 Dehradun and at every other office. Registering a new car costs ₹600, and a duplicate Registration Certificate (RC) costs ₹300.

Worth knowing: The HSRP, Uttarakhand road tax and any state service charges are paid separately from these fees.

As the dealer files the application for a new private car on the Vahan portal, most buyers in Uttarakhand never need to take the car to the RTO. The road tax and the ₹600 registration fee are paid with the price of the car, and the Registration Certificate (RC) follows once the RTO approves.

Important to know: The dealer needs a valid policy to register the car, not a policy sold by the dealer, so you can compare cover and buy it yourself before delivery day.

As the RC shows who owns the car, it has to be moved into the buyer’s name after a sale. You apply on Vahan or at the RTO whose code is on the RC, such as UK-07 in Dehradun, and the fee for a car is ₹300.

Cover does not move with the RC by itself, so the buyer has 14 days from the transfer to apply to the insurer for the policy.

Removing a loan (hypothecation) from the RC in Uttarakhand

A car loan is recorded on the RC through Form 34, so it stays there until it is removed. When the loan is fully repaid, ask the lender for its No Objection Certificate (NOC) and a signed Form 35, then apply on Vahan for an RC that no longer shows the loan.

With offices spread across the hills, it helps that most Uttarakhand RTO work can be started from home. Vehicle services run on the Vahan portal and driving licence services on the Sarathi portal, both on the Parivahan Sewa website. A trip to the office is still needed for a few steps, such as the driving test.

Duplicate RC and RC status check in Uttarakhand

Since an RC is needed for most RTO work, a lost, stolen or damaged one should be replaced through Vahan on Form 26, for a fee of ₹300 for a car. To see where an application stands, look it up on Parivahan Sewa or mParivahan, or check your RC status on Kiwi Insurance.

Driving licence services in Uttarakhand

Since licences are handled on Sarathi, a learner’s licence, a driving test slot, a renewal or an International Driving Permit can all be applied for there. If you need them on paper, Form 2 and Form 4A are among the forms below.

Traffic fines follow the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, so the base amounts are national. Driving without valid insurance costs ₹2,000 for a first offence and ₹4,000 after that. As states can compound some offences at their own amounts, the challan shows what is actually due.

A challan on a UK vehicle can be looked up and paid on the Parivahan e-challan portal, echallan.parivahan.gov.in, by entering the vehicle or challan number, or in the mParivahan app.

Worth knowing: A valid policy is what keeps the uninsured driving fine off a challan, so see car insurance in Uttarakhand below.

If you are leaving Uttarakhand, get the NOC from your UK office before the car goes. The unused part of the Uttarakhand road tax can be claimed back once the new state has registered the car.

A Bharat series (BH) number is a registration that is valid in every state, so the plate carries no UK or other state code. When a BH owner moves out of Uttarakhand, there is no No Objection Certificate (NOC) to get and no new registration to apply for. That makes it useful for people who are transferred often, such as defence personnel posted in Dehradun. It was introduced through G.S.R. 594(E) of 26 August 2021, in force from 15 September 2021, and amended by G.S.R. 879(E) of 14 December 2022 to allow ownership transfer and conversion of an existing registration.

A diesel car pays 2% more and an electric car 2% less, and the tax is paid in 2-year blocks. On a regular UK number, a ₹8 lakhs car instead pays Uttarakhand road tax of 9% once.

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. Since a BH car is never registered again on a move, there is also no road tax refund to claim from Uttarakhand.

Since the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 set the RTO forms nationally, Uttarakhand uses the same ones as every other state. Today, Vahan and Sarathi let you complete most of them online. If an office still wants a paper form, download the PDF from the Parivahan Sewa website.

As a used car sale needs both sides, the seller and buyer fill Form 29 and Form 30 together, and the buyer then has 14 days to move the insurance.

Worth knowing: Forms go to the office whose code is on your RC, such as UK-07 in Dehradun or UK-01 in Almora. As some services also ask for address proof or a Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificate, it saves a trip to read the document list on the Parivahan Sewa website first. For forms not listed here, see every RTO form on the Parivahan Sewa website.

How your insurance links to the Uttarakhand RTO

Insurance and the RTO record are linked in three ways. A new car needs cover before any UK office will register it. A buyer of a used car has 14 days after the transfer to take over the policy. When a car gets a new number, after a move or a re-registration, inform your insurer so that the policy and the RC agree.

Worth knowing: To avoid any gap in cover after buying a used UK car, complete the RC transfer and the policy transfer inside the same 14 days.