Hyderabad, March 13 (IANS): New vehicles in Telangana will now use 'TG' prefix in registration numbers as the new Congress government has changed the state's abbreviation.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has issued a gazette notification in this regard.

The state government had last month decided to change the state’s abbreviation.

After formation of Telangana state in 2014, then TRS government had opted 'TS' as the state abbreviation.

The Congress government said "the previous government did not follow any rule and rhyme and decided to go with 'TS' as per its whims."

During the election campaign, Congress leader Revanth Reddy had announced that if his party is voted to power, it will change the abbreviation.

He had said: "TG was replaced by 'TS' only to suit the TRS party. No other state in the country has 'state' in the alphabet component in the vehicle registration number."

Following the new gazette notification, the state will now have vehicles with three abbreviations.

While the new vehicles to be registered in the state will have 'TG' prefix, the vehicles registered earlier with 'TS' will retain the same prefix. The state also has a large number of vehicles with abbreviation 'AP' as Telangana was part of united Andhra Pradesh before becoming a separate state in 2014.

While opting for 'TS' abbreviation earlier, the government did not make it compulsory for owners of 'AP' vehicles to change the number plates. Similarly, the present government has decided to apply 'TG' prefix only for new vehicles.