Daily Printing of 50,000 Licenses to Begin, Ending the Hassle of Carrying Temporary Slips from Mid-July

Although nearly three million vehicle driving licenses have been printed so far, the production remains slow amid increasing daily demand. According to Bhanubhakta Joshi, a computer engineer at the Department of Transport Management, around 700 to 800 essential licenses are printed daily. As the number of licenses required continues to rise, the department signed an agreement last Kartik (mid-November) with the Security Printing Press to print 1.2 million licenses, with a goal to complete this within six months. Only one month remains to meet this target.

Devaraj Dhungana, Executive Director of the Security Printing Press, expressed confidence that the printing targets will be met. “Since last week, we have been printing 50,000 licenses daily,” he said, “Previously, only about 25,000 licenses were printed every day.” With the acceleration of the printing process, the center delivered around 125,000 licenses to the department last week. “We will complete the delivery of 1.2 million licenses to the department within a month,” Dhungana added, “and if there is an agreement to print more licenses, that will also be finished on time.”

According to Joshi, the daily printing of 700 to 800 licenses is driven by urgent needs such as foreign study, overseas employment, peacekeeping forces, and those requiring immediate form submissions. Initially, the printing center and the department agreed to print 500 essential licenses daily. However, it took four months to reach full capacity, during which time processes and procurement of raw materials were completed. “Now, all necessary materials for printing 1.2 million licenses are ready,” Dhungana confirmed.

Dhungana also mentioned preparations are underway to sign an agreement with the department to print the remaining licenses by next week. After procuring required materials within a month, the remaining licenses can be printed within the subsequent one to one and a half months. “If the agreement is signed by next week, we are prepared to print and distribute the remaining 1.7 to 1.8 million licenses within this fiscal year,” he stated. “After the end of Ashad (mid-July), no service user will need to carry temporary slips anymore.”