Only if the machine runs on wheels. A wheel-mounted machine is a Construction Equipment Vehicle under the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, and has to be registered as a non-transport vehicle at an RTO in Kerala before it goes on a public road. A tracked machine is not a road-going vehicle, takes no RTO number, and moves between sites on a trailer.
Which machines need a number plate in Kerala
Register: backhoe loaders, wheel loaders, motor graders, compactors and rollers, pick-and-carry cranes, telehandlers, transit mixers, skid steer loaders and truck-mounted concrete pumps: anything that drives itself to site on tyres.
No registration: crawler and mini excavators, crawler dozers, crawler cranes and piling rigs. They run on steel tracks, so they fall outside the CEV definition. Budget for a trailer instead. That is how they reach the job.
Papers the RTO asks for
- Form 20: the application for registration.
- Form 21: the sale certificate, issued by the seller.
- Form 22: roadworthiness and emission compliance, issued by the manufacturer.
- The purchase invoice and a valid insurance policy for the machine.
- ID and address proof of the owner; for a firm, its registration papers and PAN.
- Temporary registration papers, if the machine moved on a road before it got its permanent number.
You apply at the RTO that covers where you live, or where your firm has its place of business, inside Kerala. If you later sell the machine or clear a loan on it, the RC has to be transferred and the hypothecation removed. We have walked through that paperwork in our guide to RC transfer and hypothecation removal.
What registration adds to your budget
Registration fee and road tax are set by each state, and Kerala notifies its own rates through its transport department, so we do not quote a figure here; ask for the current rate for your machine category before you sign. As a planning number (as of August 2026), a wheeled machine’s on-road price runs roughly 8–12% above the ex-showroom price once registration, road tax and first-year insurance are in. A tracked machine has no on-road price at all; its landed cost is ex-works plus GST, trailer transport to site and first-year insurance, which usually works out 10–20% above the ex-works figure.
Who can drive it on a public road
The operator needs a valid driving licence covering the class the machine falls under. Which class that is depends on the machine’s unladen weight and on how the Kerala transport department treats construction equipment, so confirm the class with the RTO at the time of registration. Site-only operation of a tracked machine needs no licence of that kind, though the operator still needs training to run it safely.
Source: Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, which define a construction equipment vehicle as a self-propelled, wheel-mounted machine built for construction work. Fees, road tax and licence classes change by state notification — treat this as a checklist, and confirm the current position with the Kerala transport department or with our team before you buy.
Excavator
294 models 
Backhoe Loader
51 models 
Crane
68 models 
Concrete Mixer
79 models 
Wheel Loader
54 models 
Compactor / Roller
45 models 
Motor Grader
42 models 
Concrete Pump
66 models 
Skid Steer Loader
11 models 
Telehandler
13 models 
