Out of the 2.9 million old driving licenses, 3.5 million will not be printed immediately. Since they are less than a year old, they will not be printed. However, the Department of Transport Management has said that they will be printed and provided on the basis of application in cases where they are needed immediately. 

Since it takes time to print and send them to the office and the concerned persons are also late in coming to collect them, the department says that such licenses will be printed only after renewal. Currently, the validity of the license is five years. 

Even if they are printed now, they have to be renewed again after the time expires, so a decision is being made not to print licenses that are less than a year old, said Keshav Khatiwada, director of the department. ‘Currently, when looking at the system, about 3.5 million licenses are less than a year old,’ he said, ‘of which 60 to 70 percent of the license users are abroad. After renewal, the license holder does not seem to have done any work, nor does it seem to have added a category.’ 

Khatiwada said that 1,300 licenses had expired last Friday alone. ‘The system knows how long the license is, and it has been made to not send licenses that are less than a year old in print,’ he said. ‘Many of the licenses that are expiring are abroad.’ He said that from a practical point of view rather than a legal point of view, it seems that they will not be printed. Khatiwada said that the decision not to print them is being made because it is not practical, it will cause a loss to the state and the general public will also be forced to renew them quickly. Now, the license will be valid for 10 years when renewed. 

Some of the licenses that were printed and sent have been sitting in the office. The license period is calculated from the expired period when renewed. From 14 Shrawan 2080, a 10-year period has been implemented instead of five years. ‘Even if the new term is a license with a specified period and a five-year period, the same revenue has to be paid,’ Khatiwada said. 

Although licenses are currently printed and distributed in coordination with the Department of Transport Management under the federal government, renewal is done through the Transport Management Office under the province. The decision to increase or not increase the revenue for renewal is made by the concerned provincial office. Currently, 18 lakh 2 thousand 248 licenses have been printed out of 29 lakh. 88 thousand 495 licenses are in process and 1 million 9 thousand 257 licenses are yet to be printed. 

An agreement was signed between the Department of Transport Management and the Security Printing Center on 12 Kartik 2082 for printing 12 lakh licenses out of 29 lakh. As per the agreement, the center was supposed to print and deliver them by 12 Baisakh 2083. Accordingly, the center printed 12 lakh licenses and submitted them to the department. A second phase agreement was signed on 4 Baisakh to print the remaining 1.7 lakh licenses by 32 Asar. 

According to the data kept on the center's website, 6 lakh 2 thousand 248 licenses have been printed out of 1.7 lakh licenses. In the second phase, 3 thousand 803 licenses were required after the agreement and 1 lakh 30 thousand 858 licenses were printed within 24 hours of payment of revenue. 

According to the agreement reached with the department in the second phase, all licenses will be printed by mid-Ashar, said Gopal Raj Timilsina, Deputy Secretary of the Security Printing Center. ‘The 88,000 licenses that are in the process have also been printed, we will send the licenses to the department on Monday,’ he said, ‘After the second phase of licenses are printed, there is no problem in reaching an agreement with the provinces to start printing.’

The department is currently collecting data from transport offices across the country and sending it to the center. He said that the relevant provinces can coordinate and send this work. The department is preparing to implement a system to apply for new and renewal licenses online from July 1. The system has been prepared so that renewal of the blue book can also be done online and a procedure is being prepared to implement it, said Khatiwada, Director of the department.

Khatiwada said that discussions are underway to send the printed licenses from the printing center to the relevant transport offices from July. ‘We are thinking of reaching an agreement between the center and the Postal Services Department so that licenses can be printed from the printing center and sent to all 42 transport offices,’ said Director Khatiwada. ‘Post and printing have not said no to this.’ 

Khatiwada said that from Shrawan, arrangements will be made to clearly write the address of the place where you are getting the license when filling out the license form for new and renewal. ‘You should fill the form with the address of where it is easy to get the license. You can choose any of the 42 transport management offices,’ he said. Currently, the department prints and sends licenses to the transport management offices within the Kathmandu Valley.