Renewing Driving License – The Process I had to Follow

I got my first license, two-wheeler license in Oct 2002 when I was fresh in college. It was for 20 years. Till 2022, I was kind of relaxed. My license expired last year Oct. The DL issued in my hometown. and now I am in Bengaluru. For DL renewal process, you need to be present there in RTO and do the formalities personally. For just DL renewal travelling back to hometown was looking like an expensive exercise.

So, I thought let’s try to renew it in Bangalore itself. My ID proofs are from Bengaluru only. So I thought renewal here would be easy. Also, another motivation was that RTO is just 1 km away from my home, so thought if need to go multiple times, it would be easy. But it was not so.

Hurdles Process

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I started enquiring with agents and everyone was like wanting to make up their business loss from me only. After checking with multiple agents, I decided to do it myself. I started going through the RTO site and other sites to understand the process of renewal. I even watched some YouTube videos also. After going through all these I was confident that it is easy process as everything was online. I submitted all the required documents and paid the fee. And just sat relax.

There was no update in first week. It was in submitted status and in review. I thought online application would be get lower priority than offline applications, so let’s wait for some more time. I waited for another week. Two weeks later also status was same.

I started getting little worried, I thought maybe there is some problem with RTO site. So, I thought to visit RTO. I went to RTO and got to know something completely unexpected. My application was there in the system, but it should be verified by some officer, then only it will proceed further. Also, they need to get details of my old DL from previous RTO. Seemed like it was not enough to surprise me, they told me to get an email from previous RTO on my details. I was like now everything is in system, you can access and verify yourself, so why you need me to get the details. But they were like this is the process. Now for me the challenge was how to get the details from that RTO. Why they will share these details if I ask them.

I was not sure how to get this done. I discussed this with my family there and luckily found somebody inside RTO there to send this email to this RTO on my details. So, I send an email requesting them to share my DL details to Bangalore RTO via email. After 2-3 days, I got response. But funny part was, they are just the email to me only. They did not do reply all, so Bangalore RTO did not receive this email. Now again I followed up with my native RTO, ask them to send the email again to Bangalore RTO. It took another day for them to send email to Bangalore RTO. Finally, these documents formalities were over.

It was almost 3 weeks since the time I applied. So, when these formalities were over, I asked them that how much time it will take for DL to come. They said it will take 30 days around. I thought printing of the DL only pending as all other approvals were done. But again, as they said it was process and due to lot of applications coming to this RTO, it will take time. So, there was no other option than to wait. So, I waited for a month’s time, but I did not receive my DL. After 1 month, I again went to RTO. They said it will be dispatch in another 2-3 days, and within a week’s time I should receive it. I asked them to hand it over to me, which they denied.

Now waited again for a week, still my DL did not come. I visited RTO again. This time they said that just one day before only they dispatched it, and it should be coming by local post in 2-3 days. Again, I waited for 3 days still I did not receive my DL. I again went to RTO to check the status. They informed that it sent to a wrong address. It missed from their side only. So, the DL came back from post office, now they will send again.

I was completely frustrate. But no other option than to wait. Finally, 3 days later, my DL came. I feeling was like I winning some long battle, and it was not a license, it was my winning trophy.