‘Embossed number plate installation not compulsory, it is only intensified’

KATHMANDU: The Department of Transport Management has clarified that the installation of embossed number plate in all vehicles from the beginning of new fiscal year was not made mandatory.

The installation of high security embossed number plate was instead intensified, according to the Department’s spokesperson Ishworidutta Paneru.

Department’s notice issued two days ago on the installation of embossed number plate which contains details about the vehicle owner as well the status of the payment of revenue had courted controversies among the public and in the social media.

Spokesperson Paneru said that the Department did not mean that the citizens must affix the number plate in their vehicles compulsorily beginning from the 17 July this year.

The notice released recently was complementary to the statement issued on November 8, 2021, he shared. ‘It is our responsibility to implement decisions made in the past.”
Furthermore, he admitted that there was no way over 2.5 million vehicles registered in Nepal could fix the embossed number plate within coming 40 days.

Based on the notices, the Department of Transport Management in Bagmati and Gandaki Provinces had instructed to monitor whether the installation of number plate made up of aluminum and electronic chip with GPS system was implemented in the vehicles registered in the provinces or not.

The Department of Transport Management had awarded the contract to print the embossed number plate to Decatur Tiger IT, a joint venture company of Bangladesh and the USA. The agreement to fix the number plate based on computerized technology was signed in 2016.

The Department in the notice had cautioned that traffic police would begin to monitor the vehicles whether the vehicles had embossed number plate or not since 17 July and would take action if not installed, sparking decry among the public.

According to the Department, the responsible agencies and officials should pay attention towards increase in liabilities to the State due to embossed number plate and dismal fulfillment of the target towards it.

It is both federal and provincial government’s responsibility for transport management. The federal government had inked the agreement for the embossed number plate while the provincial offices were enforcing the agreement. Lack of coordination between the two resulted in lax implementation. RSS