The service, including renewal of driving licenses, which was suspended after the protests on Bhadra 24, has resumed from Monday. The service has started almost two months after the fire damage. Partial service was started from three offices in the Valley on Friday. As of Monday afternoon, the service has been started from 21 out of 42 offices across the country, said Keshav Khatiwada, Director of the Department of Transport Management.

‘The other 5 offices are also in touch, we are starting the service from them too,’ he said, ‘We have started partial service immediately, we will gradually provide full service.’ He said that it will take time to start the service as some offices were damaged by arson.

There will be no immediate service in Pokhara, Itahari, Lahan, Butwal, Dhangadhi, Dang and Chitwan. ‘These offices have suffered major damage due to arson, so there is a problem in starting the service,’ Khatiwada said, ‘There is no problem in getting us connected to the system once the service is ready.’ He said that there will be no delay from the department for this. The service will start once the office is ready. Now, applications for new licenses will not be open immediately.

Earlier, 6 to 7 thousand service recipients from all seven provinces used to apply for new licenses on a normal day. Accordingly, 4 to 5 thousand new licenses were passed in the trial. This service has been available from 42 transport management offices across the country. ‘It will take another day or two for this service to start,’ he said, ‘new applications will be opened only after some of the remaining transport management offices start providing services, for which a time needs to be determined.’ The department is preparing to arrange for applications to be submitted by specifying a time according to the province. Khatiwada said that since the system is being run as it is, a time will be determined only if it does not run at the same ‘speed’ as before.

Although it will take time to start the service from the seven transport offices, Khatiwada said that new applications will be opened after all the other offices are operational. The trial service will also start accordingly. Work is underway to manage the seven damaged offices and maintain them. The department’s building in Minbhawan in New Baneshwor was destroyed by arson. Although maintenance work is currently underway, the office has not been fully operational.

Work has been carried out by placing desks and benches in the passenger waiting room. The department’s data center has also been destroyed by the fire. Due to which, the department has stated that there is a problem in starting the service immediately. The license was removed from the Nagarik app after the department's data center was burnt down in a fire. Director Khatiwada said that the license will be available on the Nagarik app from Tuesday.

Out of the 2.5 million licenses that have been pending for a long time, the printing of 1.2 million is going to be started. For this, an agreement was signed between the Department of Transport Management and the Security Printing Center on Thursday. The printing center will print 1.2 million licenses and provide them to the department within 6 months. The center will start printing them in a few days, says Director Khatiwada.

For those who need licenses immediately, including those going for foreign employment, the printing center will print and provide them. For this, as before, those who need licenses immediately will have to apply to the department. They will be printed and provided accordingly. The department had been printing and providing about 500 such licenses daily.