KATHMANDU, Jan 23: The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) has extended the contract for the installation of embossed number plates by three years, a move expected to result in a financial loss of around Rs 1.5 billion for the department.
The deadline for installing embossed plates has now been pushed to mid-December 2028 due to slow progress and losses caused by damage during the Gen Z-led protests, according to officials.
During the protests in September last year, a fire destroyed the DoTM’s main building along with storage facilities and printing equipment, rendering more than 850,000 embossed number plates unusable. Of these, around 680,000 plates had already been received by the department, while the remaining stock was still with the contractor.
Will embossed number plates be installed to 2,400,000 vehicles...
The project is being implemented by Decatur–Tiger IT, a joint American–Bangladeshi company. Following prolonged negotiations, the department agreed to bear the loss for the plates already handed over, while the company will proceed with installing the remaining plates under the revised timeline.
Officials said the department was compelled to agree to the extension due to contractual provisions that require payment of up to 95 percent of costs even if installation targets are not met, provided delays are attributed to administrative obstacles.
The embossed number plate project, signed in 2016, aimed to install plates on 2.5 million vehicles within five years, but progress has remained sluggish. Even after two earlier deadline extensions, fewer than 100,000 vehicles have been fitted with embossed plates so far, prompting the latest extension.
Under the agreement, the contractor was also required to build 10 RFID gates, but only two have been completed to date, with several others yet to see any construction progress.
