New licence plates are in the making, reports Rehab Sayed Ahmed The Ministry of Interior is putting an end to the existing incongruent car plates of varying colours and sizes and instead will regulate them throughout the country starting in August. Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly, Major General Sherif Gomaa, assistant interior minister for traffic, said in order to meet the escalating demand for car plates needed to license new cars, it was decided that the new plates would mix numbers and letters for the first time, with a maximum of four numbers and three letters which refer to certain data recognised by traffic departments to distinguish cars from each other. The combination of numbers and letters will facilitate the production of 26 million car plates which will be sufficient to replace existing plates, as well as for future requirements. Gomaa added that the recent plate system which uses only numbers can allow more than one car to have the same number as long as they are licensed in different governorates, creating confusion to both the public and traffic policemen. To avoid repetition, it was decided to write the word "Egypt" both in English and Arabic on the plate instead of writing the name of the governorate. Various colours have been assigned to differentiate between cars. Orange car plates are for taxis, sky blue for private cars, dark blue for police cars, brown for rentals, red for trucks and pickups and green for diplomats. The size of the new aluminum anti-rust plates is 35x17cm. To make it easier for radar and surveillance cameras to detect the numbers, the plates' background will be painted in white with numbers and letters printed in black. To combat car theft and plate exchanges, lasers will be used to engrave the eagle, the Egyptian Republic's motto, in order to make forgery impossible. Every plate will have a bar code of its own. As a further safety precaution to prevent using the plate by more than one car, traffic departments will fix the new plates with specially designed screws which will break if the plate is incorrectly dismantled. Initially, the new plates will be available at traffic departments in Cairo, Giza, Qalioubiya and Alexandria starting from 1 August for five months and then nationalised in all governorates during the following five months. People buying new cars will receive the new plates directly while for cars which already have plates, car owners will have either the option of waiting until the renewal date of their car licence or applying for the new plates if they wish starting from August. Gomaa said the Ministry of Interior is modernising its database in parallel with the production of the new car plates. The computerised database will include all the information about the car including production date, engine number, trade name and whether it is imported or manufactured in Egypt, in addition to detailed information about its owner. Gomaa said the system will help stop plates from being stolen. The Mintage Stamping Authority affiliated to the Ministry of Finance will manufacture the new plates. Traffic departments across the country currently stamp the plates at the Alexandria factory for metal plates, but Gomaa said the factory had failed to make high quality plates. It could not meet the increasing demand for plates needed for new cars, which created a shortage throughout the governorates. Between 80,000 to 90,000 new cars are licensed in Cairo every year.
