An official at the ministry (MoFA) said that a large MRP consignment is arriving on November 21, and this will enable the ministry to plan a date to begin issuing the much-awaited passports.[break]
The official said that the passport personalization system has been set up at MoFA and it plans to mark the introduction of MRPs by issuing the new passports to the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, Chief Justice and the Speaker.
But MoFA is looking to the cabinet to get the passport regulations finalized first. A meeting of the bills committee of the cabinet called for Thursday is expected to give final touches to the regulations. The ministry cannot issue the MRPs until the regulations are finalized and published in the government gazette.
Though the ministry is getting MRPs in large numbers at the weekend, MoFA is yet to fix a date when it starts issuing MRPs to the general public.
Nepal had initially planned to introduce MRPs on April 1 but could not due to controversy over choice of supplier of the smart passports. Nepal has twice missed the deadline for introducing MRPs as per its commitment to the International Civil Aviation Organization, the UN agency.
The French security printer, which bagged the multi-million dollar MRP project amidst deep controversy, will supply 3.4 million to 4.6 million MRPs in the next five years.
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