New Delhi, March 5: As many as 16.72 lakh driving licences were found "possible duplicates" after analysing records of 6.70 crore licences, Parliament was informed today. This comes against the backdrop of Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari stressing that 30 percent of the driving licences in the country are bogus.

An analysis by National Informatics Centre (NIC) on National Register for Driving Licenses regarding fake licences found that there is a possibility of duplicate licenses, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Mansukh Lal Mandaviya told Rajya Sabha in a written reply. "As on January 5, 2015, out of total 6,70,16,851 driving licences records available, 16,72,138 records were found to be possible duplicates spread over 7,99,923 clusters," Mandaviya said.

The percentage of probable duplicates stands at 2.5 percent as per this exercise, he said, adding the information has been shared with states for further action. He said implementation of provisions of Motor Vehicles Act comes under the purview of the state governments.

The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2017, passed by Lok Sabha and presently in Rajya Sabha for consideration and passing proposes many clauses which will promote simplification and citizen facilitation. "Ministry has introduced online based citizen-centric application VAHAN 4 and SARATHI 4 to ease out the process of obtaining driving licenses such as online application, payment of fees or booking an appointment at the RTO for a new driving license etc," the minister said. "Thirty percent of the driving licences in the country are bogus. Now onwards the driving licences will be electronically registered under the umbrella of e-governance," Gadkari has earlier said.