Early registration numbers in India

[IndrojitSircar]

Originally Posted by harit

Hi Indrojit,

I did a little bit of research and came up with a surprising fact which may explain all.

I did get a WBA blue book, i.e. Registration Certificate in my hand and have copied 2 pages from it. It seems that we wrongly assumed that the BLA etc series were immediately changed to WBA in 1948, because in this WBA book the change was made in 1957. Probably West Bengal had other issues to deal with first, they had suffered heavily during the partition. This will also explain how it is possible that a late 1950's Merc also has a WBA number. I could never have imagined such a late changeover of numbers, in 1957! And the book clearly states the first date of registration as 9th December 1937. And so perhaps this Ponton Mertc was issued a "gap" number. This gives added impetus that car registration numbers were never reassigned. Unfortunately this is a 'duplicate' book, normally in duplicate books they do not mention the old number.

About one or two series running parallel, we know that different RTO offices issue different series, otherwise it becomes difficult to manage.

You have mentioned that you have done research, if you had you would have come up with something similar to what I have posted above. By back-up I mean the evidence, something like the 2 pages which I have attached.

About rattling off, I suggest you see the two lines which I have put in bold, combine them and you will see what I mean. As you can see, the typing fast and rattling are interconnected.

Hope this would help.

Cheers harit

Hello Hairt


Thankx for the copy of the blue book.I confirmed with the owner of the merc ponton and he said that it was registered some time in 1961.This clears it out then.But i would also like to bring to note that i have done my resaerch but don't have un ending time to do so.I have limited time for all this.So whatever i mentioned earlier was going by verbal confirmation of sources.I think the Re-registration process began in 1956 because this blue book which you have posted the number starts from 5xxx so there is a possibilty of them starting it in 1956.I say so because i saw the copy of my Golden Hawk and it states to be registered in 1956 June.It was a copy of the original book which didn't mention any old number.

I will surely keep in mind next time thatr i have to have evidence to support my research.


Regards

Indrojit Sircar

[IndrojitSircar]

Hi friends

I saw a very strange thing today i saw maruti 800 early 90's model witht he square tail lamps with a very strange registation on it.It had BR 1 2525 C . Now what does that mean.I'm sorry i didn't have a camera at that point of time and neither do i have one in my phone so was wondering if any one could please clarify what this is ?

Thankx

[sabinesnubbing]

Indrojitsircar,
What colours was the plate? BR is Bihar and I guess it may be a temporary reg from there with 1 for Patna? Are there any members living in Bihar who can comment?
Cheers
Cedric

[IndrojitSircar]

Originally Posted by sabinesnubbing

Indrojitsircar,
What colours was the plate? BR is Bihar and I guess it may be a temporary reg from there with 1 for Patna? Are there any members living in Bihar who can comment?
Cheers
Cedric

It had a white number plate.Yes BR is for bihar but don't think a early 90's car would have a temp number though!

[karlosdeville]

A couple of beautiful shots of taxis in Darjeeling can be seen here

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/1528719-post848.html

The lineup of Austins/Fords etc. appear to spot white plates, being commercial vehicles. The other shot of the Model A Ford (must be an earlier picture) seems to spot a 5 digit number 26772. I should think it was part of the 5 digit series prevalent in Calcutta at the time, as Darjeeling would have come under that jurisdiction.

[harit]

After doing some research on registrations in Mumbai and Bengal (remember WBA?), I had a look at a registration book from Madras State, this book was issued by registering authority Tirunelveli. here there is also a puzzle.
It says I registration of K 482. The date registration is 26.06.1958.
What is not clear, was this a Madras state (TN) car reregistered anew or was this a Mumbai car where K series is known to have been in use.
If a Madras car, then did the K series also exist over thers?
If a Mumbai car migrated to Madras state, then why K series registered in 1958 when all K series cars became BMW in 1940?
Can someone look into other Madras state books and give feedback?
Below copies of the pages of the book.
Sabinesnubbing, any comments?

Cheers harit

[sabinesnubbing]

Harit,
Excellent! Are these old books still reasonably common? A great source of dates and places of registration.
So is this book for MDT (Tirunelveli) xxx reregistered in 1958 from K482 a 1934 Ford.
If K482 is the original 1934 number, then I would suggest it must have been a Mumbai (Bombay city) number as the list I have runs from 1902? to 1939 and K is listed as the final registration series (Z,Y,X,W,T,N,K). Although K is also listed as the original Karachi 1902 series, I am sure it was not still being issued in 1934. All the original Madras presidency numbers I have are two letter codes.

From what you and indrojitsircar have recently discovered, the reregistration of pre39 and 39-47 series numbers continued well into the late 1950s. Maybe K482 was not registered for a few years in the 1950s before moving to Tirunelveli?
Cheers
Cedric

[karlosdeville]

An interesting picture with an early regn 'B0173P', apparently shot in Bankipore (?)

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/1551830-post876.html

[wasif]

Any info on this cars plate please

[IndrojitSircar]

Originally Posted by wasif

Any info on this cars plate please

I think it would be of some pricly state.By the way when was this picture taken?

[wasif]

maybe ten to twelve years ago.

[IndrojitSircar]

Originally Posted by wasif

maybe ten to twelve years ago.

I think it is a similer case like what happened in bengal with the change of series from BL to WB and probably it was not changed.I'll try and find out which state this is from.

[Stanher]

Originally Posted by wasif

Any info on this cars plate please

Originally Posted by IndrojitSircar

I think it would be of some pricly state.By the way when was this picture taken?

As someone mentioned, CAT would be Karnataka of the 80s (when they had "CA", "CT" and "CN" series regns.) even the stencilled font indicates that it is KA regn.

[karlosdeville]

It is fairly clear that CAT would be a later Karnataka series.

What we don't know is what is written on the red plate (which is a later replica of a princely state plate with the new number on it). There is some urdu script, and 'India Priv' - what could that mean?

[IndrojitSircar]

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

It is fairly clear that CAT would be a later Karnataka series.

What we don't know is what is written on the red plate (which is a later replica of a princely state plate with the new number on it). There is some urdu script, and 'India Priv' - what could that mean?

I think you are right about it being a karnataka. I think "india priv" could mean "indian Private" because i don't think there was any princely state called "India Priv". It is possible that it was a princely state car and then was sold to someone later and mayb the older red number plate colour was retained. And as far as the urdu writing is concerned i think the car was either owned by a muslim gentleman or by a muslim princely state and that was just been kept.