650,000 Plates, 450,000 Licences Stuck in Backlog — 6 Months to Clear It?

DMT's Commissioner General said in late October that 650,000 vehicle number plates and 450,000 driving licences are sitting unissued, and the department has promised to clear the whole backlog within six months. The fix so far is new motorcycle registration centres opening district by district, starting in Gampaha, with Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Hambantota and Jaffna to follow, and a promise to extend the same model to other vehicle categories later. One side says this is just catching up on paperwork after years of being short-staffed and short of plate stock, and decentralising registration is overdue regardless of the backlog. The other side points out we've heard "X months to clear it" before, the plan right now only covers motorcycles in a handful of districts, and anyone who's bought a car and waited months for a permanent plate while driving on a temporary paper one knows how this usually goes. If you've registered a vehicle recently, how long did you actually wait for your real plate or licence card? Do you think six months is realistic, or are you expecting another extension announcement in April? ඔයාලගේ අත්දැකීම මොකක්ද - අලුත් නံබර් ප්ලේට් එකක් ගන්න කීයක් වේලාව ගියාද?