Kathmandu : Smart driving licenses printed by the Security Printing Centre have been handed over to the Department of Transport Management.
The Centre said the test printing of the QR-code–based licenses has been successful. According to Centre Executive Director Dev Raj Dhungana, 520 units of license were delivered to the Department in the first phase. In the second phase, the Centre has received the details of 1,200 applicants, and printing is currently underway in full-fledge. The quality of the printed licenses was tested in a domestic laboratory before delivery.
Department IT Director Keshab Khatiwada said this achievement marks a significant step toward resolving the license-related problems the Department has been facing for the past four to five years.
The Centre and the Department had signed an agreement on October 29, under which the Centre is required to print and supply 1.2 million driving licenses within the next six months. Printing began on November 7 at the Centre in Panauti municipality-5, Kavrepalanchok, and was inaugurated by Minister for Communication and Information Technology Jagdish Kharel.
Director Dhungana said the Centre is fully capable of meeting the printing targets as stated in the agreement. In addition to driving licenses, the Centre is preparing to begin printing postage stamps within a few days. It will then move on to printing citizenship certificates, excise stickers, land ownership certificates (lalpurja), and visa stickers.
The new cards will use QR codes instead of embedded chips and will feature high-level security measures. Each card will contain up to three layers of security technologies and 34 different security features, both visible and invisible, it is said.
