Kathmandu, February 9

The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) has said that it will start affixing embossed number plates on two-wheelers from February 13.

Publishing a notice on Thursday, DoTM said that only two-wheelers registered in Bagmati Zone can instal the embossed number plate from next week. Two-wheeler owners should have cleared all government taxes and would have to pay Rs 2,500 to instal the digital number plates.

As per DoTM, almost one million two-wheelers have been registered in the Bagmati Zone alone so far.

Though DoTM has not set the deadline for two-wheelers to instal such digital number plates, it has urged them to affix embossed number plates as soon as possible. However, four-wheelers registered within Bagmati Zone will have to switch to embossed number plates from conventional analogue number plates currently in use within mid-April, 2019.

DoTM had begun installing embossed number plates on vehicles belonging to the government and diplomatic agencies on August 20 last year. Meanwhile, it also started distributing such digital number plates to private vehicles on the basis of provincial structure from the first week of November last year.

“We plan to substitute the current analogue number plates in vehicles to digital within the next two years. As such digital number plates on vehicles is a boon to the country’s transportation sector, all riders are urged to affix embossed number plates on their vehicles without delay,” said Rupnarayan Bhattarai, director general of DoTM.

DoTM has been charging Rs 2,900 for three-wheelers, Rs 3,200 for light four-wheelers and tractors, and Rs 3,600 for heavy vehicles for the embossed number plates.

As per DoTM, embossed number plates have been installed on almost 1,000 vehicles since the process was first started in August last year. However, it is yet to start the tracking system for the embossed-plated vehicles. Following the inability of the government to start tracking system for the embossed-plated vehicles, this digital number plating system in vehicles is yet to make a difference in the domestic transportation sector.

The chip-fitted embossed number plates are expected to help the government track vehicles, control vehicle thefts and check use of vehicles in criminal activities. In a bid to track embossed number-plated vehicles, the government plans to set up ‘tracking gates’, also called ‘sensor gates’, in different planned locations. However, construction works of such gates are yet to begin.