KATHMANDU, Jan 26: A technical problem has arisen in the printing of driving license cards that arrived from Germany 15 days ago.
As a result, the card printing process has not yet commenced. However, officials from the Department of Transport Management (DoTM) assure that the technical procedures for card printing will soon be underway.
In the first phase, Muehlbauer Company of Germany dispatched 600,000 cards to Kathmandu on January 11. The DoTM was preparing to start printing the cards from mid-January but there have been some technical hurdles in that preparation.
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India's Madras Security Printers has been entrusted with the task of personalizing the cards imported from Germany. The license cards are provided by Germany's Muehlbauer Company, with Germany's Forga Test Company responsible for conducting lab tests on the cards. However, the Madras Company has not yet personalized the cards. This company has been overseeing Nepal's license system for the past eight years.
Uddhav Rijal, the director general of the DoTM, mentioned that the German company Forga has not yet received the cards for lab testing due to the delay in personalizing the cards. According to the DoTM, the printing of cards from Germany has not commenced yet because lab tests are pending. The DoTM plans to send 75 printed cards and 75 blank cards to the Forga Company in Germany. Rijal stated, "As soon as the cards are printed, we will send them to the lab for testing."
Earlier, the DoTM had prepared to print the cards from mid-January and distribute them to the beneficiaries as soon as the cards were printed. Muehlbauer Company has received the contract of sending 1,200,000 cards from the DoTM. Of them, 600,000 cards have been sent in the first phase. The remaining 600,000 cards will be sent in the next phase within 45 days.
There are 1,458,000 drivers who have passed or renewed their driving licenses waiting for the card.
The printing of licenses has been halted for the last six months. Currently, 4,000 to 5,000 individuals pass the driving license tests or renew their licenses daily.
Trip of high-ranking DoTM employees to Germany to monitor card quality postponed
Meanwhile, a program of high-ranking employees of the DOTM, who were planning to visit Germany to monitor the quality of the cards, has been postponed for a few days. However, the employees of the DoTM said that the plan has not been canceled. Earlier, a team including Director General Rijal, head of IT Department Mukesh Regmi, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport Raghuram Bista was scheduled to go to Germany in January to assess the quality of cards. This visit was also approved by the Council of Ministers. Sources say that the visit has been postponed for a few days. Director General Rijal said that the program to go to Germany has been postponed as the DoTM is busy with the investigation into suspected irregularities during the license distribution process.
