During most of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, disruption in the supply chain and the Russia-Ukraine war caused a shortage of chips that meant that smart driving licences were not issued, said Pethi Sarguru, CEO of Versatile Card Technology (VCT), one of the largest manufacturers of smart cards used for PAN cards and voter IDs.
Tenders for manufacture of these smart documents are yet to be floated in multiple states, said several persons aware of the situation. In Maharashtra, the tender for smart driving licences has been awarded to Manipal Technologies, Vivek Bhimanwar, transport commisioner, Maharashtra, told ET, adding that he expects the shortage to ease in two or three months once the supplier is on-boarded.
P Srinivas Rao, chairman & CEO of KL Hi-Tech, a Hyderabad-based provider of secure-based printing solutions to financial institutions and banks, said that tenders for driving licences are in process in several other states.
Shortage of chips affected issuance of cards by banks late last year, but the situation improved after intervention by government and private agencies. Several automobile dealers said that there are delays in issuing driving licences as well as smart cards for vehicle registration.
In some states, Covid-led disruptions have created problems for new vehicle buyers over the entire last year. An IT employee in Kolkata told ET that he had bought his new car in mid-2022 and never received the smart card for it.
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