Rosmerta Technologies steps up commitment to improve road safety in India

Gurugram-based Rosmerta Technologies, which is a key supplier of high-security registration plates (HSRPs) to vehicle OEMs in India, is expanding and evolving its range of technology-based solutions to enhance road safety in the country.

Rosmerta Technologies has four subsidiaries – Rosmerta Engineering, Rosmerta Autotech, Rosmerta Telematics and Rosmerta HSRP Ventures. The company, which was the first player to get a Type Approval certificate for HSRPs way back in 2002, is today the second-largest numberplate manufacturer in the world, and the largest in India, with a market share of over 50 percent. It is now working to leverage the foundation created by the government mandate on HSRPs, to design solutions that enhance road safety.

“The standardised alpha-numeric numbers have made HSRPs become the bedrock for all Intelligent Traffic Management Systems (ITMS’) which can immediately capture traffic-signal and speed violations on the roads. While these are the elementary applications of the HSRP, Rosmerta Technologies, among other players, is working to capture incorrect lane change, and other high-speed violations on the highways. These violations will be automatically recorded by the existing cameras and the technology will significantly improve road safety,” Kartick V Nagpal, president, Rosmerta Technologies tells Autocar Professional.

Nagpal explains that a lot of ITMS-based applications can work through the HSRP, and that an electronic toll-deduction system is also something in the pipeline. “E-tolling is something that will happen at a much faster pace than the existing FASTag. The system would incorporate automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) cameras which will be capable of reading up to 2,000 numberplates every hour at the toll booth to enable quicker passage,” he adds.

Karn V Nagpal, president, Rosmerta Technologies, seen here with SIAM president Vinod Aggarwal at the Auto Expo 2023. 

Automated Test Driving Tracks

The company’s portfolio also includes other road safety-oriented solutions, including Automated Driving Test Tracks (ADTTs). These tracks feature Rosmerta’s proprietary sensor- and video-based technologies that assess the driver performance and eliminate manual intervention in a driver’s license assessment process. Rosmerta Technologies presently operates 12 such ADTTs in the national capital and estimates that the government would requires around 500 such centres across India over the next 3-5 years.

“It is vital to remove subjectiveness from the driving license test procedure to strengthen the foundation of road safety in India and augment it from the ground level. Our technology ensures that any driving license is issued with proper checks and balances, without any manual intervention,” Nagpal explained.

Diversifying into D2C services

The company also offers the anti-theft Microdots technology that enables theft protection, part identification and traceability to limit the use of spurious automotive parts. Now, it is set to integrate its range of IoT and telematics devices that have been serving commercial vehicle fleet operators for more than a decade, into its new consumer-centric app – MyRaasta – that aims to offer a range of services to vehicle owners at the convenience of a tap on the app.

While the company will offer its connectivity and tracking solutions to car owners to proactively monitor their vehicle’s location as well as its health, it is also focusing on scaling up its vehicle servicing business vertical which was launched in 2021.

“The pandemic triggered a shift in consumer behaviour towards adopting doorstep services, and we found that as an opportunity to tap in the vehicle servicing space. We have been able to standardise our processes across workshops and leverage our longstanding relationships with OEMs to ensure genuine spare parts availability across brands,” says Karn V Nagpal, president, Rosmerta Technologies.

The AI-based MyRaasta app for vehicle inspection aims to reduce human intervention and provide ease of use to users.

The D2C venture – MyRaasta – which is funded by the family as well as Rosmerta, has registered revenues of Rs 8 crore within the first 12 months of operations. The company is targeting four-fold growth in CY2023, with the IoT and telematics solutions bringing incremental revenue. Rosmerta will also offer services such as renewal of driving license, removal of hypothecation, and transfer of registration certificate (RC) through the MyRaasta application.

“Rosmerta Technologies is the largest player when it comes to smartcard-based registration certificates and driving licenses with more than 50% market share in states which have outsourced these services to private players. Haryana, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and West Bengal are some of the key states where we have deployed our services with the RTOs. As we go now directly reach out to the end consumer, we want to offer a process which is completely transparent and the customer can track the progress in the MyRaasta application. We want to ensure a much faster turnaround time of 3-6 days for such RTO services,” he adds.

Driving automotive D2C brand registration

With over 350 satellite distribution centres which are producing and shipping more than 50,000 numberplates in real time to almost 19,000 automobile dealers daily, Rosmerta Technologies is driving automobile retail in India while being behind the scenes.

The company employs around 2,500 people and 700 delivery executives. Rosmerta Technologies has two mother plants in Assam and Himachal Pradesh which produce the blank plates. These are further sent to 25 distribution warehouses, which ultimately despatch the blanks to the 350 satellite distribution centres which conduct the hot stamping and heat-transfer foiling on these blanks, based on the number approved against the vehicle when it gets registered.

A vehicle dealer can receive a numberplate within a matter of 8-10 hours after placing an order on the company’s dealer portal. During the peak of the festive season, Rosmerta ensures that it delivers HSRPs within three hours. Turnaround time is key and the company has, therefore, set up a greater number of smaller satellite centres so that it could reach faster to the dealers.

The company is also the force behind the successful foray of D2C automotive brands like Ola Electric, for which Rosmerta Technologies steps in at the back end to take care of the entire vehicle registration process. “When these companies (Ola Electric, Bounce and Okinawa) sell a vehicle to a customer, we take care of the end-to-end process of speaking with the customer, getting OTP details, generating the registration forms on the Vahan portal, and scheduling appointment with the customer to get their signatures on the registration documents.

“For a D2C brand, registration becomes more critical than the manufacturing itself and we enabled the entire process of registration through to delivery for Ola Electric in a span of less than 12 hours of the vehicle being allocated to the customer,” remarks Karn V Nagpal.

With a keen focus on improving road safety in the country, Rosmerta Technologies is also operating its Automated Test Centres (ATCs) for offering vehicle fitness certification services in several states. The Group’s overall revenues are set to touch Rs 700 crore in FY2023, and it aims to stay committed towards enhancing road safety with its technological solutions.

“We are focused and committed to road safety and easing compliance requirements throughout the vehicle lifecycle, right from production to end of life,” concludes Karn V Nagpal.