Registration of vehicles down by 26.6 per cent

The total number of vehicles registered in the Sultanate of Oman till November this year slowed down by 26.6 per cent with 95,540 over last year’s comparable figure of 130,157, according to the latest data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).

However, certain categories of vehicles witnessed a rise in the number of registrations during the period. Registration of government, driving school vehicles as well as commercial and rental vehicles showed an increase.

Government vehicle registrations went up 19.5 per cent to reach 2,092, while driving school vehicles logged a rise of 3.1 per cent with a total of 168 registered vehicles.

Percentage growth in registration among commercial and rental vehicles stood at 11.2 per cent and 8.3 per cent respectively, with corresponding numbers recorded as 22,703 and 4,279.

The decline in new registrations had been most prominent among private and taxi vehicles along with motorbikes and tractors. Registration of private vehicles went down by 36.3 per cent to 64,699, while that of commercial vehicles shrank by 11.2 per cent logging 22,703.

Taxis and tractors saw registrations coming down by 31.2 per cent and 37.5 per cent respectively to 659 and 55. During the period as many as 812 motorbikes were registered, posting a downslide of 30.6 per cent.

Vehicles registered by various diplomatic missions too slipped by 20.7 per cent with just 73 registrations by end of November.