By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Dec. 24: How long does it take to receive a smart driving licence after passing the license examination? One month, two months, six months, one year or two years?
Ayushma Sharma of Kathmandu has waited for two years and three months for her licence. “I am waiting for my smart licence for more than two years, as per the officials at the Transport Management Office my licence number was doubled with another person,” said Sharma.
Like Ayushma, another service seeker Bivash Koirala complained that the system at the transport management office showed that the licence had already arrived at the office where his licence was issued, but the officials did not find his printed licence.
Gagan Bahadur Hamal, Director General at the Department of Transport Management, said that the delay in service delivery was due to the high demand of smart licences.
The service seekers have been facing problems due to the delay in getting licence after passing the trial exam.
Sometimes, the printed licence may get misplaced and may not reach the designated office, said Hamal.
“We are now operating a high quality of smart card printing machine, which can print up to 5,000 cards on the daily basis,” said Hamal.
“In the past, we had low quality machine which had the capacity of printing only 1500 cards daily,” added Hamal.
With the heavy block log and complaints about the delays in the distribution of smart licences, the department had purchased a mass printer to meet the demand of the service seekers.
According to Hamal, the department receives around 7,000 new applications every day which makes the printing of licence a challenging task. The department is issuing smart driving licenses to the urgent applicants within a week, said Hamal.
Many service seekers have also complained about the errors in the smart driving licences, which gave additional problems to the card holders.