A newly introduced green number plate for electric vehicles has drawn attention after an owner said he was stopped and questioned by traffic police who did not recognise it.

The driver said in a video posted to social media that police in Weliweriya stopped him after noticing the green plate on his new electric car, the Daily Mirror reported.

What the driver said happened

Officers questioned him because they were unfamiliar with the new plate type, he said. He produced the vehicle registration confirmation message issued by the Department of Motor Traffic, along with other documents, to establish that the plate had been legally issued and was not a forgery.

The owner said the incident should not necessarily be blamed on the officers, who may not have been told the new plates were being introduced.

What he asked for

He called on the authorities to ensure that all police stations and traffic divisions are informed promptly when vehicle registration procedures or number plates change, and suggested that copies of the relevant Gazette notifications be supplied to traffic police stations nationwide to prevent similar stops.

The Daily Mirror framed the episode as raising questions over whether adequate communication and awareness measures accompanied the change.

Update, September 7: the Department confirms the plates are valid

The Department of Motor Traffic has since confirmed the scheme publicly. Commissioner General of Motor Traffic, retired Air Vice Marshal Thushara Indunil Fernando, said number plates with a green background will be issued for all electric vehicles, and that the green plates already issued are legally valid, NewsFirst reported.

White and yellow plates will continue to be issued for other vehicles, in line with the existing system, the Daily Mirror reported. The statement answers the question the Weliweriya driver raised — his plate was genuine.

The scale, the authority and the police briefing

Ada Derana’s account of the same statement fills in what the others left out:

That last point is a direct answer to the Weliweriya driver, who had asked precisely that Gazette notifications be circulated to traffic stations. It also explains the stop: the plates were issued on a ministry directive and were in use before the notification was published or the police were told.

A backlog of 88,740 plates waiting at Narahenpita

In the same statement, the Commissioner General said new number plates have been prepared for 88,740 registered vehicles and asked owners to collect them from the Department’s Narahenpita office.

Those break down as 56,233 plates for vehicles registered between 10 June and 31 August 2026, and 32,507 for vehicles registered during 2023 and 2024 — a two-year backlog now finally printed. The 2023–24 group reflects the suspension of plate printing that ran for more than a year before the Werahera facility restarted.

Context

Number plate administration has been an unsettled area. Printing at the Werahera facility resumed in June after a suspension of more than a year, and police have previously had to clarify how temporary plates would be enforced after confusion among drivers and officers.

Not reported

The Daily Mirror report does not identify the driver or give the date of the stop, and the account rests on the vehicle owner’s own video; no officer’s account is given.

The Department has since confirmed the plates are valid, said the notification has been sent for gazetting and said the IGP has been asked to brief police stations — but no outlet gives the Gazette number, the date it was forwarded, or when it takes effect. None says whether stations have in fact been briefed, and Police Headquarters has still not commented.

No report says whether existing electric vehicles must be re-plated, or by when, and none reconciles the roughly 8,000 plates printed against the number of EVs on the road. No deadline was given for collecting the 88,740 prepared plates, and no outlet says whether owners outside Colombo can collect them anywhere other than Narahenpita. The Ministry of Transport directive behind the decision has not been published or dated.

Update, September 9: the scheme is named, and the traffic DIG has been told

The Daily Mirror returned to the story on Wednesday — its third report on the same Department of Motor Traffic position in four days — adding three details the earlier accounts did not carry.

The plates are being issued under a policy the Commissioner General named as the “Green Sri Lanka” concept, and the Transport Ministry took the decision on the grounds that electric vehicles produce zero emissions. That is the first stated rationale for the colour change; earlier reports established only that a ministry directive existed.

The scheme’s scope is also now explicit: green plates go to all electric vehicles, including cars, three-wheelers and electric motorcycles — not only cars.

Most usefully, Commissioner General Thushara Idunil Fernando said the DIG in charge of Traffic has been informed that green plates are legally valid and should be recognised accordingly. The September 7 reporting had said only that the IGP had been requested to brief police stations. This is a step further — a specific senior officer named as informed — though it still falls short of confirming that individual stations have been briefed, which is what the Weliweriya driver asked for and what remains unverified.

Note the Department gives his middle name as Idunil here, against Indunil in the earlier NewsFirst account.

Sources