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. They are produced by Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory, located in Gazipur.[1] The current version of vehicle registration plates started in 1973, and the current digital number plates have been in use since 2012. 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's registration series 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 purposes. Private vehicles would have black characters on a white background, while commercial vehicles would use black characters on a green background.[2]
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 June 2020, the BRTA proposed it’s new idea of personalised number plates, where people can choose their own preferable registrations numbers, with an increased registration fee.
| Vehicle types[5] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Example | Description | |||
| Private |
| White plates used by private cars, micro-bus (this colour scheme is also used by older commercial vehicles) | |||
| Commercial |
| Green plates are used in fare-hire vehicles like taxis, CNGs, and city buses | |||
| Diplomatic |
| Yellow and orange plates are used for the uses of foreign diplomats. | |||
| Army |
| Black plates are for the vehicles that are owned by the Bangladesh Army in use for army officers. | |||
| Air Force |
| Used in staff cars of the Bangladesh Air Force. | |||
| Navy |
| Blue plates are for the vehicles that are owned by the Bangladesh Navy only in use for the naval officers. | |||
License plates of Bangladesh are divided into two lines, the first of which displays the city in which the vehicle was registered in, followed by the vehicle's class represented by a Bengali letter.
The second line of the license plate shows a six-digit registration number acting as a unique identifier for the vehicle. It consists of a two-digit number representing the registration series it was registered in, followed by a registration number from 0001 to 9999. In older, unupdated vehicles, the plate may not have a two-digit registration series number and instead may only have a 1-4 digit registration number displayed.
The letters permitted in the vehicle registration plate are:
Bengali: অ ই উ এ ক খ গ ঘ চ ছ জ ঝ ত থ দ ধ ন ট ঠ ড ঢ প ফ ব ভ ম য র ল শ স হ
The numerals permitted in the vehicle registration plate are:
Bengali: ০ ১ ২ ৩ ৪ ৫ ৬ ৭ ৮ ৯
White = Private service vehicle| Vehicle Usage Color | Vehicle Class Letter (Bangla) | BRTA Class Letter (English) | Vehicle Class Number Range | Type of Vehicle | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| From | To | |||||
| White | এ (ae) | A | 11 | 99 | Motorcycle– Cruiser, Sport, Touring, Standard, Dual-sport, Dirt bike, Scooter | |
| White | হ (haw) | HA | 11 | 99 | 101 to 125 cc | |
| White | ল (law) | LA | 11 | 99 | 126 to 165 cc | |
| White | ক (kaw) | KA | 11 | 99 | up to 1000 cc | Motorcar– Sedan, Coupe Hatchback, Convertible, Station wagon, Sports car |
| White | খ (khaw) | KHA | 11 | 99 | 1001 to 1300 cc | |
| White | গ (gaw) | GA | 11 | 99 | 1301 to 2000 cc | |
| White | ভ (bhaw) | BHA | 11 | 99 | above 2001 cc | |
| White | ঘ (ghaw) | GHA | 11 | 99 | SUV, Crossover | |
| White | চ (chaw) | CHA | 11 | 50 | Microbus, MPV | |
| White | 51 | 99 | ||||
| Green | প (paw) | PA | 11 | 99 | Taxicab | |
| Green | ছ (chhaw) | CAA | 11 | 70 | Human hauler | |
| White | 71 | 99 | Ambulance | |||
| Green | জ (borka-jaw) | JA | 11 | 99 | Minibus | |
| White | ঝ (jaw) | JHA | 11 | 99 | Coach bus | |
| Green | ব (baw) | BA | 11 | 99 | Inter-city & Inter-district bus– Double-decker, Single-decker, Articulated bus | |
| White | স (donta-shaw) | SA | 11 | 99 | School bus, College bus | |
| Green | ত (taw) | TWA | 11 | 99 | Mishuk | Auto rickshaws |
| Green | থ (thaw) | TAW | 11 | 99 | Baby taxi, CNG | |
| White | দ (daw) | DWA | 11 | 99 | ||
| Green | ফ (faw) | FA | 11 | 99 | Auto tempo | |
| White | ঠ (t'haw) | THA | 11 | 99 | Dual-purpose vehicle– pick-up with double cabin, pick-up with single cabin, Panel van, passenger van, prison van, security van, standard van, troop carriage, panel van | |
| White | ম (maw) | MA | 51 | 99 | up to 2.5 tonnes | Delivery van, Mini-truck |
| White | 11 | 50 | up to 3.5 tonnes | Truck– Cargo truck (closed or open), Tipper/Dump truck, Cargo van, Covered van, Flatbed truck, Low-bed truck, Bottle carrier, Pole carrier, Demountable truck, Rigid truck | ||
| Green | ন (donta-naw) | NA | 11 | 99 | ||
| White | অ (shorey-aw) | AU | 11 | 99 | 3.5 to 7.5 tonnes | |
| Green | ড (d'aw) | DA | 11 | 99 | ||
| White | উ | U | 11 | 99 | 7.5 to 22 tonnes | |
| Green | ট (t'aw) | TA | 11 | 99 | ||
| White | ঢ (d'haw) | DHA | 11 | 40 | Private articulated vehicle | |
| Green | 41 | 60 | Oil tanker, Water tanker | |||
| White | 61 | 80 | Semi-trailer truck– Flatbed, Lowbed, Container chassis, Gas tanker | |||
| Green | 81 | 99 | ||||
| White | শ (talibo-sshaw) | SHA | 11 | 99 | Special purpose vehicle– Concrete mixer/pumper, Cement bulker, Constructional truck, Freezer van, Tow truck, Boom truck, Mobile crane, Garbage truck, Streetcleaner, crash tender, earth digger/remover, foam tender, forklift, grander, hearse, invalid carriage, ladder carrier, payloader, refuse vehicle, Small tanker | |
| White | ই (rossho-ee) | E | 11 | 60 | Agricultural vehicle – power tiller, tractor | |
| White | 61 | 99 | – | |||
| White | য (ontosto-jaw) | N/A | Prime Minister's office (any vehicle) | |||
| White | র (boye shunno-raw) | President's office (any vehicle) | ||||