Kathmandu, August 31

The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) is preparing to probe the quality of smart driving licence cards being supplied by India-based Madras Printers in domestic market.

Suspecting that the Indian company is supplying low quality smart cards, DoTM is gearing up to verify the standard of the smart cards provided by the firm through a third party. The DoTM recently published a notice seeking applications from interested foreign firms to probe the quality of smart driving licence cards supplied by Madras Printers.

DoTM had been receiving complaints on the quality of smart driving licences, especially regarding the visual clarity of information printed on the cards.

“The third party will take samples of smart driving licences from the market and verify its standard,” informed Lawanya Kumar Dhakal, director general of DoTM.

The government had begun distributing smart driving licences from early 2016 and had awarded contract to print such smart driving licence cards to Madras Printers of India. As per contract, the company has to supply a total of 980,000 such cards to DoTM, of which it has so far supplied 750,000.

However, DoTM has not released full payment to the Indian company. “In case it is revealed that Madras Printers has been supplying poor quality smart cards to us, we will not release further payments to the company,” said Dhakal.

Meanwhile, DoTM officials claimed that the printing and distribution of smart driving licences will not be affected by the probe.

The DoTM has so far distributed almost 300,000 smart driving licences in the market. However, demand for such digital licences is soaring in the country with more than 400,000 applicants yet to receive their digital driving licences.

Due to lack of ample printing machines, DoTM has been failing to meet the demand of smart driving licences. Though the per day demand for smart driving licences stands at more than 4,000, the government has not been able to supply more than 2,000.