Indian Driving Test & Driving License

Re giving way - it doesn't matter right or left if the vehicle is bigger than yours! Here, they go straight into roundabout and then give way to left coming traffic, but if it's a rickshaw then keep going. The tendency here is to give way to left rather than right (which it ought to be according to our version of road rules, for right hand driving).


That bike incident would be enough to bring on a heart attack, I reckon, Nick!

Accidents are my bad dream; hitting a pedestrian is my nightmare; hitting a child...

Notwithstanding that, of course, I fervently wish never to cause injury to anyone, of any age, the consequences of injuring a child here would be just to grim to imagine.

Yes, I agree. Which is why whenever I go through small villages, even a couple of houses only, on the main road to Jodhpur I slow right down. But many manic drivers don't - they speed through at 100km the same speed they are doing on the open road. I hate that sort of thing.

Its better you get an International Driving License from your country. That license is valid in India. Taking a driving test and get a license is cumbersome and irritating one. Even Indians face problems in getting a license. Better you get International license from your country which is valid in INDIA.

For tourists, who cannot get an Indian driving license anyway, yes an International Driving Permit obtained in their own country is what they need.

However an International Driving Permit has a maximum length of one year so for people like Aishah who live in India, obtaining an Indian driving license is the only option.

Unless you are in India for longer than 6 months, which was true for me.

Plus it has the added benefit of turning heads when you are playing tourist. In the Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, I used it as the ID you hand over when you get the audio tour headset. When I went to retrieve it, the woman at the counter was very surprised. “You live in India”? It broke the ice for a nice chat.

The trick is to know somebody who knows somebody. You don’t actually need to have those connections yourself. It is enough if you have 27 degrees of separation from the RTO, so just ask around among Indians you know.

My driver has a friend who happens to moonlight at a street level BJP operative, so he knows everyone and their cousin-brother it seems. Getting my license was remarkably painless because of this. After asking around a bit when I thought I’d lost my license (it turned up), I’d found second social path to the RTO.

You may also try an agent who may be able to pull a few strings and speed up the process. I had a quote for about 15 days all up (once I have pulled together all the paperwork, which is the hard part)and about Rs2500. An internet search should pull up a few results in your area.

Thanks Haylo, for answering Anand for me! I'm currently on a GPRS mobile connection up in the mountains for three months now (escaping the heat) and sometimes it takes a while to get around to seeing all my subs - very slow connection.
Having lived nearly ten years here now, it is necessary for me to have the Indian Driving licence, from a legal point of view. I knew I would eventually get it - but unfortunately I had to contend with an Officer who was not fully cognizant with all the rules. It cost if I remember rightly only 360 rupees altogether, plus about 20 rupees for the form filler in, who did it in Hindi and English combination.
In the meanwhile, I had been driving for the past 10 years, sometimes with an International Driving Permit (when I was able to go back and get one) and the rest of the time with the current Australian Licence, but this is not legal should anything happen here in India.

Out our neck of the woods, tembo, there is no agent. There is the driving school, with a beat up ancient vehicle which is rarely used I think, but even that way, I think the stubbornness of the RTO head man would not have approved it in the initial stages of my applications.

IN Kerala I found thngs are different now. I remember taking my license some 20 years back by driving H shape for Car and taking 8 shape for bikes. They really have a tough rule for this. Corruption was there at that time also.

Then after 10 years everybody started getting through corruption only. But recently when I approched for license renewal, I found no corruption. It is all computerised and everything works withotu money given to RTO etc. This is a big change.

I also caught by police once during my vacation time and from my past experience and stories heard I approched the inspector with money and was literally insulted by him and he asked me to go to court. I went to court and paid the money next week.

Sosystem is improving. I recommedn people to go by the system. This may be different in different places of the country. But driving schools are the best first time approach.

...Very different here in Chennai!

I'm intrigued by what you mean here, Ithin: 'H shape for car' '8 shape for bike'.

Out our way corruption seems to be dependent on the Head DTO man - the one before the one I was dealing with was very corrupt. Everyone said to me if I had applied for it then, I would have easily got it, passing some extra money. Other advice I was given was to wait until the current man moved on. However, I was pleased it was all, in the end, done correctly for the fee only.

You have t drive your car through a BIG "H" to get car license
+ regular road test (tough).

And the bike thru a BIG "8" That is how I got my license. I believe that is still on there. Now they rarely take bribe as media is very strong in Kerala. They travel with small cameras. The next day you will see them in TV taking money.

I had to do an I-test for mine: drive the car in a straight line.

The bike people had to drive up the road and drive back again. I don't know if they failed if they fell off, but some were certainly wobbling, and I understand that everybody was getting their licences.

All this on a quiet but wide back street. No "regular-road" test. Oh... there's a theory test, but only in theory!

Thanks ithin for explanation! I think I must have been lucky - no theory or driving test at all. But since we are such a small place where everyone knows everyone else, they would have seen me driving about for the previous 9 or so years and been satisfied with the way I drive, I guess!

My sister did her license in 1990. At that time no test was required. When I got around to doing mine in 1995 I had to do a "Z" test for the car. This was done infront of the "Brake Inspector", a very fat man who was somehow monitoring about 5 simultaneous car and bike tests at the same time.

The "Z" test entailed driving straight, turning right, straight and then left and then doing the whole thing in reverse. I was third in line and the two people infront didn't manage to do the reverse part. It was hillarious. With the first guy, the local "agent" got onto the guys lap and did the steering for him, and he passed. With the second guy, the student just hopped out and "agent" did the reverse for him.

I also did my "Motorcycle with Gear Only" test on the same day, but hadn't managed to sort out the logistics of proccuring a bike and a car on the same day. Mr. "Brake Inspector" made up the license plate of the bike I apparantly did my "8" test on!

6 months later I was using the same license to drive very high power bikes in the UK! That was perfectly legal but it was all so very wrong!