Kathmandu, Sept 10: Protests, vandalism, and arson have caused severe damage to the Department of Transport Management. The government had decided to make embossed number plates mandatory from mid-September and warned that vehicles without them would not get registration, transfer of ownership, or renewal. The decision had been made under outgoing Minister Devendra Dahal’s leadership with participation from federal, provincial, and local representatives.
After protesters torched the department, the factory producing embossed plates and all its equipment were destroyed. Stocked plates, machines, and office servers were also burnt. Services such as license printing, renewals, and registrations have been suspended indefinitely, affecting thousands of service seekers. Director Shrikant Yadav said the damage is so extensive that an inventory of what survived is needed. Except for laptops carried out by staff, almost everything was lost.
The government had contracted a Bangladeshi-American joint venture, Decatur–Tiger IT, to produce 2.5 million plates within five years starting in 2015, under a package contract worth Rs 387 million. Around 1.9 lakh plates had been installed, another 1–1.25 lakh were in production, and 2–3 lakh were en route when the fire halted everything. Around 800,000 plates are estimated damaged, far higher than the earlier estimate of 500,000.
Yadav said there is no insurance coverage for the loss. Plates already handed over to the department fall under government liability, while plates still with the company are its responsibility. Since the deal was a package contract covering plates, machines, and RFID systems, the exact per-plate loss cannot be calculated separately.
If plates are not installed by the December 2025 deadline, the government must pay about Rs 3.91 billion in compensation to the contractor. The Supreme Court had earlier cleared legal hurdles regarding language use on plates, and the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority had given a clean chit on corruption allegations.
The ministry had extended the contract period twice, most recently until December 2025. With the factory completely destroyed and software systems gone, the department says it has suspended installation for now and has not decided how to proceed. Completing the task before the contract expires appears unlikely, which could expose the state to heavy penalties.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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