Delay In Emergency License Printing Leaves Foreign Employment Workers In Trouble

Kathmandu: Even a month after the Department of Transport Management began printing emergency driving licenses through the Security Printing Center, service recipients continue to suffer. Workers leaving for foreign employment have been the most affected.

Although the department resumed license printing a month ago, applicants have not received their licenses for more than a week due to procedural complications. Earlier, when the department handled printing directly, licenses were issued within a few hours. Now, with printing shifted to the Security Printing Center, applicants are forced to wait for weeks.

A service recipient preparing to travel to Qatar for foreign employment said he had to cancel his air ticket twice because his license did not arrive on time. “A driving license is mandatory at my workplace. I applied 10 days ago, but it has still not arrived,” he said. “The manpower company has warned that if I arrive without a license, they will not issue the ticket.”

Applicants who have traveled to Kathmandu from distant districts and are staying in hotels say they are repeatedly turned away with assurances that the license will arrive “tomorrow” or “the day after tomorrow.” Some have been forced to travel abroad by authorizing relatives after failing to receive their licenses even on their departure date.

After the department’s license printing system was damaged during the Gen-Z movement, printing is currently being handled by the Security Printing Center. “Earlier, we could issue licenses within eight hours. Now it takes longer because data must be transferred and managed through another agency,” said Keshav Raj Khatiwada, Director General of the Department of Transport Management.

At present, the department receives between 200 and 300 emergency license applications each day. However, printing small numbers of cards on the center’s large machines leads to wastage of raw materials. As a result, applications from several days are collected and printed together.

Khatiwada said the department sends data to the printing center every three days. The center then takes another three to four days to print and dispatch the cards. Because of this process, it takes more than a week for licenses to reach applicants.

As of Sunday, December 14, a total of 5,556 licenses have been printed since the process resumed on December 7. Another 1,268 licenses are still pending. The department has been publishing details of printed licenses through the ‘Hello Yatayat’ Facebook page.

To address the issue, the department is developing an automatic data transfer system with the Security Printing Center. Khatiwada said this system will take at least another month to become operational.

Risk Of Licenses Expiring Before Delivery

The department is also facing a backlog of more than 2.5 million licenses dating back to May 2022. Some of these licenses are set to expire in 2026. According to department statistics, an average of 1,200 licenses expire each day.

To prevent expired cards from reaching applicants, the department has adopted a reverse-order policy. Under this approach, newer applications are printed first. In line with its agreement with the Security Printing Center to print 1.2 million cards, the department plans to gradually clear older licenses while prioritizing applications from 2025 and 2024.

 

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