Smart Driving Licenses

Government to Issue 300,000+ Smart Driving Licenses by Mid-August

The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) has vowed to issue 300,000+ smart driving licenses by mid-August this year. According to the DoTM, around 400,000 smart cards and additional printing equipment have been acquired to ensure the process is completed within the coming two months.

The DoTM initiated the distribution of smart driving license in July, last year. However, due to the shortage of smart cards, the DoTM has not been able to provide the smart driving licenses to everyone. More than three lakh people are waiting to get their driving license. There are more than 200,000 driving licenses to be issued to new riders and more than one lakh applications for license renewal.

Tulsi Ram Aryal, DoTM Spokesperson said that the department has acquired four new printing machines in order to speed up the printing process. With the four new machines, there will now be nine printing machines in the department. Aryal said, “These machines will be operated in a double shift to meet the target within the stipulated time. The department can now issue 5,000 smart driving licenses each day.” He further added, “As demand for license cards stands at around 4,000 daily, we are sure of normalizing license distribution within two months.”

The officials assured that the department will be issuing smart driving licenses to the applicants within a couple of days.

While initiating the distribution of smart driving licenses back in July, last year, the Government had planned to completely replace the hand-written driving licenses within 3-5 years. However, the plan didn’t succeed due to the shortage of smart cards and slow progress in printing the smart licenses.

The DoTM is expecting to receive an additional 350, 000 license cards within a couple of weeks to cater to the demands.

In November, last year, the Government had targeted the end of December to get the smart cards ready. And once again, we were disappointed with the poor Government service.

Now that the Government has vowed to issue more than three lakh smart driving licenses by mid-August, let’s hope this time, we won’t be left with disappointment and all those who are waiting for their driving license will be provided with their digital license.

 

News Source: Kathmandu Post
Featured Image Source: OnlineKhabar