Over 650,000 people have applied for taking driving license tests

KATHMANDU, Dec 1: New applicants for a driving license are compelled to wait for around two years for their turn as more than 650,000 people have applied at the Department of Transport Management (DoTM) to take driving license tests.

According to the DoTM, it has been receiving an overwhelming number of applications in recent days. An additional over 50,000 applicants have applied for the vehicles operating license in the last two weeks alone.

A DoTM official said a huge backlog of the number of applicants has been seen as the lockdown enforced to contain further spread of COVID-19 halted the process of issuing driving licenses for more than a year in total. In the aftermath of the first lockdown in 2020, the DoTM suspended license examS for 10 months citing the risks of COVID-19. The DoTM again suspended the process for issuing driving licenses for seven months before it started taking online applications on October 25.

According to the DoTM, around 500,000 people who passed the licensure examinations are yet to receive the smart driving license cards. Recently, the DoTM received 1.4 million units of smart driving license cards supplied by A French company. The DoTM, however, has not started to distribute the imported license cards.  

 
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