Govt allows private firm to print smart driving licence cards

Kathmandu, October 23

In a bid to ensure the availability of sufficient number of smart driving licence cards and make sure that service seekers get their driving licences on time, the government has allowed a private firm to print smart driving licence cards.

As per the Department of Transport Management (DoTM), private firm Malika Incorporate Ltd has been authorised to print the smart driving licences.

The private firm has been allowed to print smart licence cards after DoTM could not print such cards as per the market demand. This means that both DoTM and Malika Incorporate will print driving licence cards from now onwards.

“Malika Incorporate has been allowed to print smart driving licence cards as per decision of Cabinet,” said Gokarna Prasad Upadhyay, spokesperson for DoTM, adding distribution of smart licence cards will ease once Malika Incorporate starts printing smart cards.

As per DoTM officials, Malika Incorporate has been authorised to print 500,000 smart driving licence cards in 45 days. As Malika Incorporate has already brought necessary printers and other equipment for the purpose, Upadhyay said that the company will begin to print smart licence cards soon.

Malika Incorporate is expected to print up to 5,000 smart driving cards every day through its 20 printers. “Once the company prints 500,000 smart driving cards and hands them over to DoTM, distribution of smart driving licences will ease significantly,” added Upadhyay.

With limited number of printing machines and other resources, DoTM has been printing only about 2,500 such cards every day at present while the daily demand for smart driving licences is more than 7,000. As a result of low printing capacity with DoTM, thousands of service seekers are compelled to wait for months to get their smart driving licences.

As per DoTM officials, almost 500,000 service seekers have been deprived from getting smart driving licences though they have already cleared their vehicle trial. “If everything goes as planned, all the service seekers will get their smart driving
licences within the next two months,” said Upadhyay.

Meanwhile, DoTM has also called for a global tender for the supply of high capacity smart card printing machines.

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