Merely mastering the driving techniques doesn't give you the authorisation to drive a vehicle. There are several other qualifications you must acquire before you start with your vehicle driving. The Road Transport Authority of the state government deals with the issues of the roads and vehicular driving.

According to the Motor Vehicle Act, any person who wishes to drive a vehicle must acquire a valid driving license from the Road Transport Authority (RTA). Your competency to drive and capability to control the vehicle is tested by the RTA and a valid license will be issued to you to drive the vehicle.

Learner's Driving License : It is a license issued to any person who is above 18 years of age. It must be acquired to learn driving a vehicle. A person holding the learners' license should compulsorily display an L-board on his vehicle. He should be guided by another experienced driver who holds a valid permanent license for the vehicle of the particular class. The period of validity of the learners' license is six (6) months and can be renewed every six (6) months.

Permanent Driving License: It is a license issued to any person who is between 18-50 years of age and has completed his learning period with a learners' license for not less than a period of six months. The applicant should hold a valid learners' license while applying for a permanent driving license. The certificate awarded by a recognized motor driving school should also be submitted along with the application. On scrutiny of the documents, the applicant will be called for a driving test. The applicant along with his vehicle has to go to the testing track or field and drive on the track according to the regulations of a driving inspector. On successful completion of the driving test, the applicant will be provided with a permanent driving license. The period of validity of the permanent license is five (5) or ten (10) or twenty (20) years, depending upon the category of the vehicle and the age of the drive.

Types of Vehicles:

Vehicles are divided into categories for awarding the driving licenses. They are:

Invalid Carriage - all kinds of vehicles used by handicapped persons

Motor Vehicle without gear (or auto gear) - all kinds of mopeds, lunas and simple two-wheelers fall in this category.

Motor Vehicle with gears - all kinds of two-wheelers excluded from the previous category are included here.

Light Motor Vehicle - again divided into Non-Transport and Light Commercial Vehicle cars, jeeps, vans, auto trolleys, van trolleys come into this category. While vehicles intended for personal use are called non-transport vehicles, vehicles intended for business use and fitted with carriages for goods transmission come under the category of light commercial vehicle.

Medium Goods Vehicle / Medium Passenger Vehicle -medium sized vehicles such as DCMs, small vans, mini buses (with not than 25 seatings) come under this category.

Heavy Goods Vehicle / Heavy Passenger Vehicle - heavy vehicles such as buses, lorries, tippers, truck, and trailers come under this category.

It should be remembered that an applicant for Medium Goods / Passenger Vehicle and Heavy Goods / Passenger Vehicle should hold a valid permanent license of the vehicle of the immediate lower category. Such applicants, who already hold a permanent driving license of a particular category, shall be issued multiple-category license upon satisfactory performance in the driving test. But under any circumstances, no person is allowed to hold more than one permanent license. The RTA reserves the right to cancel or suspend a driving license of a driver on the grounds of misconduct or misbehaviour or committing of any offence against law or for violation of any condition of duties as a driver or when it is found that the person has obtained license by misrepresentation of facts or by any fraudulent means.

As discussed in the earlier chapter, license for driving a vehicle is issued by the Road Transport Authority. Application in the prescribed format along with the supporting documents is to be submitted with a requisite fee for processing of the application.

For a learners' driving license:

You should have completed 16 years of age (for driving a vehicle up to 50 cc), 18 years of age (for driving a vehicle more than 50 cc) and 20 years (for driving a transport vehicle)

An application in form-2 (signed by the parent / guardian if the applicant is lesser than 18 years of age) should include:

	self declaration about his conduct in form-1
	a valid proof of age (Birth certificate, school certificate, or a certificate issued by a medical officer),
	a valid proof of current residing place (passport, telephone bill, electricity bill house tax receipt, electoral roll or a self-sworn affidavit in case of non-availability of any of the above)
	two passport photographs and
	the requisite fee

Under any circumstances, the applicant's signature should be supported by the signature of the parent/ guardian, if he/she has not attained 18 years of age

For a permanent driving license:
You should have completed 18 years of age (20 years in case of a transport vehicle)
An application in Form-4 supported by:
a valid learners' license of the vehicle of that particular category
three passport photographs
a certificate in form-5 from a government recognized motor driving school (in case of a transport vehicle)

Application for the renewal driving license should be made in Form 9 along with
requisite Fee
three copies of applicant's recent passport size photographs
the driving license
the medical certificate in Form 1A wherever applicable