March 1: The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) has stopped printing smart license cards due to the shortage of empty cards. The department has stopped printing smart license cards for applications submitted after the month of Mangsir (mid-November).

The department has only 40,000 empty cards in stock. “We have limited stock of empty cards so the process of printing smart licenses has stopped except for emergency purpose,” said Loknath Bhusal, spokesperson for the DOTM. “We are printing licenses for applications filed long ago and for emergency purposes only.”

The department has already signed an agreement to purchase new stock of cards with the French company- Smart Card and Solutions. Three companies including those from Malaysia, India and France had sent applications in response to a tender announced by the department in the second week of Bhadra (August/September).

The Malaysian Company Irish Bahard Corporation had submitted a proposal with the lowest bid of Rs 96.1 million while Madras Securities of India had proposed a bid of Rs 192.2 million. But the department awarded the French company with the project for Rs 140 million stating that the card produced by the Malaysian company was of low quality.

 “The French company was awarded the contract after analyzing the financial and technical proposals of the three companies. The proposal of the Malaysian company had six technical irregularities,” said Bhusal.

The department started distributing smart license card from December 2015. It has already printed two million smart license cards so far.