PUNE: Vehicle registrations in the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad regional transport offices (RTO) in July this year inched closer to the pre-Covid count of July 2019. Besides, the registrations at both the RTOs in July beat the previous month numbers, indicating a healthy recovery.
Confirming the trend, a Pune RTO official told TOI, “The faceless vehicle registration process, which allows online submission of documents of new vehicles by showroom owners, helped in achieving the healthy growth.”
The vehicle registrations in July this year increased by over 77% of what it was in June at the Pune RTO office, while the July registrations at Pimpri Chinchwad RTO increased by 82% against the previous month, data from both the RTO offices revealed.
“The number of vehicles registered in July this year are 14% less than the vehicles registered in July last year at the Pune RTO office. This difference is just 4% at Pimpri Chinchwad RTO. If the registrations continue like this, the numbers will go past the pre-Covid levels by next month,” another RTO official said.
Shailesh Bhandari, regional director of Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) in Pune, recently said while the overall automobile market was picking up, two-wheeler sales continued to be a concern. “Many offices as well as schools, colleges and other institutions are still closed. Hence, there is a problem in the two-wheeler market as people are not buying two-wheelers. However, the overall market has improved and the faceless registration launched in mid-June has helped,” Bhandari said.
An automobile dealer said the perception of people towards buying new vehicles had changed. “Earlier, people used to wait for a special moment, an auspicious month, festival or an occasion, to buy new vehicles. This trend has changed after the pandemic,” the dealer said.
VK Navrekar, a government employee who recently bought a four-wheeler, said there was no point in waiting now. “The pandemic has taught us that every positive moment is the right time. We had planned to buy the car on Ganesh Chaturthi, but were wary about the threat of restrictions,” Navrekar, a resident of Kondhwa, said.
