KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 6

The Department of Passports personalised a total of 398,842 Machine Readable Travel Documents in the fiscal 2019-20 and maintained its position as the first government agency to have certified ISO/9001:2015.

The personalised MRTDs include 397,053 ordinary passports, 1,260 official passports, 443 diplomatic passports and 86 travel documents.

According to ‘Report on Nepal’s Foreign Affairs (2019-20) released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the DoP provided services in an efficient, effective and transparent manner, with people at the centre. Similarly, a total of 6,456,142 MRTDs were issued as of `5 July 2020. Services were provided from the DoP, 77 district administration offices, 19 area administration offices and 38 Nepali Missions abroad.

“The DoP prioritised the launch of e-Passport in line with the policy of the government.

The new Passport Act, 2019 was published in Nepal Gazette on 14 October 2019. The DoP also worked for Passport Regulations, 2020, which was approved by the government on July 13. An Information Guidebook on MRP and e-Passport too was published,” the report said.

The DoP continued working closely with relevant stakeholders to make the verification process of passport secure, simple, reliable and client-friendly.

The DoP also developed and implemented a comprehensive software of passport management information system. It covers almost all the end-to-end processes from submission of application to personalisation, dispatch and delivery of passports.

In 2019-20, the DoP signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of National ID and Civil Registration for the use of e-Services of National ID Management Information System, enabling it to verify the identification of applicants. It introduced an online payment system through ‘Connect IPS’, which is linked to the Revenue Management Information System. It is linked with the Nagarik Adhikar App, helping users track the status of their applications.

An e-portal was developed to verify authenticity of the citizenship certificates of applicants.

“Meanwhile, the Department of Consular Services provided consular services to Nepali and foreign nationals, government officials and diplomatic missions and international organisations stationed in and accredited to Nepal. It strengthened online service delivery, providing services such as document attestation, visa recommendation and online verification of attested documents, among others, within halfan-hour,” the report said.

The DoCS initiated a digital diary system to enhance service delivery. The processes of ISO certification and upgradation of Consular Services Procedure has also been started.

The DoCS coordinated with the MoHA for commencing online registration for Police Clearance Certificate. According to the report, the DoCS, on an average, attested 1,000 documents each day.