FIGURES released by the Road Transport Administration Department under the Ministry of Rail Transportation show that the number of registered vehicles nearly doubled last year.

The figures show that there were 950,000 registered vehicles as of last September, up from 476,000 a year earlier.

The big increase was due to a four-month campaign begun by the ministry late last March that enabled unregistered motorcycles to be registered in all parts of the country except Yangon.

The campaign saw the number of registered motorcycles soar to 638,000 by last September, up from 172,000 in 2003.

Mandalay Division achieved the biggest increase under the campaign, with the number of registered motorcycles jumping to 209,205, from 77,201 in 2003.

The second biggest increase was in Sagaing Division where the number of registered motorcycles rose from 14,600 to 87,564. The figures showed there were 3460 motorcycles registered in Yangon last September.

The department said Yangon Division had the most private luxury vehicles of any division or state in September last year, with 114,000 of the 185,000 registered throughout the country.

The figures also show that Mandalay Division replaced Yangon Division last year as the division or state with the most registered vehicles. More than 261,000 vehicles were registered in Mandalay Division as of last September, compared with 157,921 in Yangon Division. There were 151,000 vehicles registered in Yangon Division in 2003.

Vehicles are registered in eight categories, ranging from motorcycles to heavy trucks.