Delays mar 2.2 million smart license printing
KATHMANDU, Feb 17: The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) has printed 150,000 vehicle licenses in the first seven months of the current fiscal year (up to mid-February). During the same period, the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport (MoPIT) printed and distributed 169,439 smart card licenses.
Currently, the DoTM is focusing on printing urgent vehicle licenses. MoPIT Secretary Keshab Kumar Sharma has stated that around 2.2 million smart vehicle licenses are still left to be printed and distributed.
The DoTM halted printing vehicle licenses in mid-June 2023. After nearly seven months, it imported cards to print 600,000 licenses. During this time, 1.4 million vehicle licenses piled up, awaiting printing.
Over 240,000 smart driving licenses printed
The DoTM plans to import an additional 600,000 cards within three months and has issued tenders to purchase 1.5 million cards and a printing machine.
Secretary Sharma explained that the delay in printing licenses is due to technology not meeting the required capacity. Although the authorities awarded a contract last year to purchase equipment for printing smart licenses based on current technology, the contract was not finalized. Consequently, they issued new tenders this year.
In mid-January, they issued a tender for the purchase of 1.5 million cards and a smart license printing machine. However, the tender was not awarded.
Initially, authorities had planned to print smart licenses with chips, but Secretary Sharma stated that this plan has been shelved. Instead, they have shifted to printing smart licenses with QR codes and integrating them into the citizen app. He confirmed that the smart license printing process has now started using this technology.
Secretary Sharma added that the subject committee of Parliament will meet in February to discuss assigning the responsibility for printing to the provincial ministries. He also confirmed that the DoTM will print the remaining vehicle licenses.
Rajeev Pokhrel, Director General of the DoTM, explained that the delay in printing new licenses has resulted in a backlog. He suggested that provinces should take on the responsibility of printing licenses to help resolve the issue.
He also emphasized that the policy assigns all transport management tasks to the provincial governments, but due to their current inability to produce licenses, the printing process continues to face difficulties.
