RTO services across Gujarat were severely disrupted on Tuesday after a technical failure in the National Informatics Centre (NIC)-managed “Vahan” portal brought both online and offline operations to a halt, leaving more than 25,000 applications pending.The outage affected several key services, including new vehicle registrations, allocation of regular registration numbers, HSRP applications, loan entry and cancellation, transfer of old vehicles, inter-state vehicle transfers, and transport vehicle permits.
Due to the portal breakdown, offline operations at Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) also remained suspended.Thousands of applicants visiting RTO offices across the state were left stranded and forced to wait for hours in the intense heat, as authorities failed to issue any timely advisory or update on social media regarding the disruption. Officials later urged citizens to visit RTO offices only after confirming that services had resumed.The latest disruption comes amid recurring technical issues with NIC servers. Similar glitches had already affected transport services for four consecutive days last week. Senior transport department officials continued to review the situation through multiple meetings, while several scheduled appointments had to be postponed.The automobile sector was also hit hard by the outage. Vehicle dealers said they were unable to complete registrations or deliver newly purchased vehicles to customers. Delays in deliveries reportedly led to angry scenes at several automobile showrooms.
Applicants and transport service users criticised the authorities over poor communication and inadequate response to repeated technical failures, raising concerns about the transport department’s handling of the recurring server issues.