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Bangladesh  Transport

In Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) issues vehicle registration plates for motor vehicles. The vehicle registration plates in Bangladesh use the Bengali alphabet and Bengali numerals. The current version of vehicle registration plates started in 1973. The international vehicle registration code for Bangladesh is BD.

The general format of vehicle registration plates in Bangladesh is "city - vehicle class letter and number - vehicle number". For example, : "DHAKA-D-11-9999". The "DHAKA" field represents the city name in Bengali letters, the "D" field represents the vehicle class in Bengali letters, the "11" field represents the vehicle class in Bengali numerals and the "9999" field represents the vehicle number of the vehicle in Bengali numerals.

The plates are installed in both the front and rear of the vehicle, with the rear plate permanently attached to the vehicle. The plate is only removed when the vehicle has reached the end of service and has been sold for scrap. New vehicles are not delivered to the purchaser until the plates have been attached at the dealership.

On October 31, 2012, the BRTA started the Digital Number Plate project, where they would start to issue new standardized retro-reflective plates with embossed characters, along with an RFID chip attached to it for tracking. Private vehicles would have black characters on a white background, while commercial vehicles would use black characters on a green background.^[1]

Previously, private vehicles would have white characters on a black background, and commercial vehicles would have black characters on a white background, and the characters were sometimes painted on by hand.

In 2020, the BRTA proposed it’s new idea of personalised number plates, where people can choose their own preferable number plates, with an extra cost.

Appearance

The vehicle plates show the region of vehicle purchase, vehicle class number, vehicle class letter and the vehicle serial number. In the older cars, the word "metro" was not seen until the 90s as well as the vehicle class number which starts from 11 and ends at 99. The vehicle class is mentioned in the more recently issued plates and is mandatory.

All plates before 2011 used to be painted steel license plates or printed. Which made it very easier for smugglers to bring in imported cars by faking the license number by painting over it. But after the digital plates issuance, it has decreased significantly.

License plates are always made in Bengali, making it hard for the foreigners to come by and finding Uber or Pathao. Diplomatic vehicles for international delegates have the numbers written in the Latin script to make it easier to spot for anyone.

The letters permitted in the vehicle registration plate are:

অ ই উ এ ক খ গ ঘ ঙ চ ছ জ ঝ ত থ ঢ ড ট ঠ দ ধ ন প ফ ব ভ ম য র ল শ স হ

The numerals permitted in the vehicle registration plate are:

০ ১ ২ ৩ ৪ ৫ ৬ ৭ ৮ ৯

Transportation offices and markings

References