Record increase in motor vehicle registrations in 1st half of ’06

Shirajiv Sirimane

Vehicle Registration : The Registration of Motor Vehicles (RMV) has increased by 32 percent in the first six months of 2006 in comparison to the previous year.

There were a total of 138,822 registrations in the first six months of this year. This figure was 105,371 in the first six months of the previous year.

Records also show that there has been a 77 percent (5,600) increase in the motorcar sector with a total of 12,861 registrations this year.

There were 9,176 three-wheeler registrations (increase of 47 percent) 12, 453 motorbike (21 percent) and 469 motorbus (47 percent increase) registrations in the first six months. There were 3,470 lorry registrations, which also show a 56 percent increase.

Commissioner RMV, B. Wijayaratne said that over 75 percent of registrations have been for brand new motor vehicles out of which over 50 percent was for motorbikes. Most of the motorbike imports have been from India and China, which is expected to beat China soon. The main attraction for the Chinese bikes to be popular is the low price, Japanese technology and the style.

The total new and reconditioned vehicle population was 229,669 by the end of 2005. The Sri Lankan vehicle population is projected to be around 4,233,463 by the end of 2010.

He said that they would invest Rs. 3 million for refurbishment of the RMV and 72 new computers also have been installed to speed up documentations. “We are also looking at decentralising RMV documentation to the provinces and this will come to effect as soon as computerising is complete,” he said.

The one day services introduced at the RMV is popular and people now say that the RMV is a better institution than what it used to be,” he said.