Kathmandu, October 3

Four international companies — three French and one Indian — have shown interest to supply smart driving licence cards to Nepal. Including Madras Security Printers India, which is also the present supplier, Oberthur Technologie France, PW Technologies France and Cilpsals Technology France have shown interest to supply smart driving licence cards.

The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) had initially published a notice for the tender on May 29 for supply of the smart cards. According to the authority, the four aforementioned companies had registered their proposals within the deadline of July 20.

“We are in the final stage of the selection process. Within the next few days, the DoTM will select the lowest bidder as per the provision of the Public Procurement Act,” said Tok Raj Pandey, spokesperson for DoTM.

After selection of supplier, DoTM will finalise the agreement with the selected company and provide a deadline to supply the smart cards. Then only will the authority be able to distribute the smart driving licence cards to the public.

According to Pandey, the eligible company will supply 750,000 units of smart driving cards to the country. Due to shortage of smart cards, the authority has not been able to distribute smart driving licences to the public who have already passed their trial examinations since May. Similarly, people who have applied to renew their old licence have also been unable to get a new one.

Supply of smart driving licence cards has halted due to the scarcity of licence cards with the DoTM since the first week of September. According to DoTM, on an average the number of people who pass their driving licence trial examination and seek new licences or those who apply to renew their licences stands at 4,000 on a daily basis. Currently, thousands of people are awaiting the smart driving licence cards.

DoTM is currently conducting driving trial examination in all the 14 zonal offices of the authority and three other offices in the Kathmandu Valley — Chabahil, Balaju and Suryabinayak in Bhaktapur.