Bagmati state government has started digitization of trunks, files and other documents of about 2.3 million vehicles in its transport management office. One hundred data entrants have been appointed for this purpose. A notice has been issued to the motorists to submit their gross files to the transport office.

Traffic Management Office, Motorcycle Gurjudhara has requested the vehicle owners from lot number 1 to 55 to submit their complete files to the office within 15 days. The file has been requested for digitization of details of two-wheelers registered in the office.

Transport Management Office Small-Big Vehicle Ekantakuna, Transport Management Office Bharatpur (Chitwan) and Hetaunda have also taken initiatives for file management. 

The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Transport of Bagmati Province has informed that in the first phase, the data entry work will be completed in Ekantakuna, Gurjudhara, Hetounda and Bharatpur and then teams will be mobilized in Banepa and Khurkot Transport Management Offices. The Ministry is also organizing a program on February 5 to announce the official start of digitization. 

The information officer of the ministry, Khagendra Paudel, said that the vehicle owners should submit their gross file to the transport office and the head of the relevant office has been given the responsibility of file management. He said that 50 desktops and 50 mobile phones have been arranged for digitization. He said that space has been taken at the integrated data management center at Singhdarbar for storage and the backup data will remain at Hetaunda. About 65 terabytes (TB) of storage has been taken up. 

Vehicle owners will have to provide their latest mobile number and National Identity Card number to the office. The Ministry expects to get the personal details of the vehicle owners from the data source of the National Identity Card. The Ministry has said that biometric data will not be collected separately as biometric verification will also be done on the same basis. Information officer Paudel says that the Ministry's plan is being linked with the identity card system. 

Vehicle tax online

Ministry has concluded that after downloading the vehicle details stored in new and old trucks in digital format, the service users should go to the transport office to pay the vehicle tax. "We are going to make a system so that things like vehicle registration, renewal, name change etc. can be done through the online system," Paudel said, "There will be no need to come to the office for blue book verification." 

Paudel said that the 'history' of vehicle tax and renewal will be updated in a digital system. His experience is that it is difficult to take the offices to 'automation' as the vehicle owners sometimes pay tax in one state and sometimes in another state. He said that the Ministry is preparing to provide online services by developing the Transport Management Information System (TMIS) mobile application.

"We are converting the Bluebook from the current paper-based to a QR card-based system," he said, "Now we are including the Bluebook in the app just like we have integrated the driver's license in the citizen app." This will end the hassle of carrying documents.