KATHMANDU: The government has decided to make embossed number plates mandatory for new registration, ownership transfer and renewal of vehicles across all seven provinces from September 17.
A meeting of the ministers and secretaries from all seven province governments, chaired by Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Devendra Dahal, took the decision on Tuesday.
The meeting decided that starting September 17, all provincial Transport Management Offices will be required to enforce the installation of embossed number plates for vehicle registrations, ownership transfers and renewals, according to an official at the ministry. It also decided that the Department of Transport Management (DoTM) of the federal government will provide necessary technical assistance to the provincial governments to implement this decision.
The committee also agreed to work in coordination with the Ministry of Home Affairs for deploying traffic police personnel to effectively monitor and enforce the embossed number plate policy.
Although the DoTM launched the embossed number plate system back in 2016 with an aim to install the plates on 2.5 million vehicles by December 2023, the progress has remained painfully slow. Due to weak implementation by provincial governments, embossed number plates have been fitted on only around 75,000 vehicles so far.
Starting September 17, all provincial Transport Management Offices will be required to enforce the installation of embossed number plates for vehicle registrations, ownership transfers and renewals.
The meeting also decided to urge the Security Printing Center to start printing driving licenses by mid-September.
The DoTM and the Security Printing Center signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on May 23 to print driving licenses. As per the agreement, the center was supposed to start printing by mid-July. However, the center has yet to begin printing.
Since Koshi, Bagmati, and Gandaki provincial governments have already initiated the procurement process for license printing, the meeting called on the Security Printing Center to immediately authorize and start the process.
The meeting also decided to standardize revenue collection for issuing driving licenses with 10-year validity, digitize transport-related records and statistics, transition payment systems to electronic platforms, streamline online systems used in transport administration, and harmonize ride-sharing policies across the country.
