In an effort to preserve and promote vintage vehicles in India, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has issued a notification, dated November 25, seeking comments and suggestions as regards an amendment to CMVR 1989 specific to vintage motor vehicles.  

The Ministry’s notification says, “There are no existing rules for regulating the registration process of vehicles of heritage value. Through this notification, the Ministry intends to formalise the registration process of the Vintage Motor Vehicles. 

These rules are proposed to be inserted as sub-rules 81A, 81B, 81C, 81D, 81E, 81F, 81G in the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989.”

The ministry has defined a vintage vehicle as “All those vehicles which are two-wheelers and four-wheelers (non-commercial/personal use) and are more than 50 years old from the date of their first registration (including imported vehicle) are proposed to be called as the Vintage Motor Vehicles. The restriction in the definition- no substantial overhaul of the vehicle which includes modification in chassis or body shell, and/or engine.”

Procedure to register vintage vehicles
- All applications for registration to be applied on the ‘Parivahan’ portal.
- The registering authority in all states will appoint a nodal officer who will process all applications for registration of vintage vehicles. 
- All states will institute a committee which will inspect a vehicle and declare whether the vehicle is fit for registration as a ‘Vintage Motor Vehicle’. 
- If approved, a 10-digit alpha numeric number will be assigned to the vintage vehicle. This registration shall be valid for 10 years. The format for the registration mark will consist of the letters ‘XX VA YY ****’, where VA stands for vintage, XX stands for State code, YY will be a two letter series and “****” is a number from 0001 to 9999 allotted by the State Registering Authority. 
- Registration fees to be Rs 20,000 for a single vehicle and Rs 5,000 for subsequent re-registration.
-  If a vehicle is registered as a vintage motor vehicle, the sale and purchase of the vehicle is allowed under the rules.

MoRTH's notification says a vintage motor vehicle will be allowed to run on Indian roads only for display, technical research or taking part in a vintage car rally, refuelling and maintenance, exhibitions, vintage rallies, to and fro to such exhibition / car rally.