June 27: In the seven years since the government entered into an agreement for 'embossed number plates', nearly 50,000 service users have installed such number plates on their vehicles.

Since the government has not made it mandatory of vehicles to install embossed number plates, only a small number of users have installed such number plates so far. The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) said that nearly 300,000 embossed number plates have been produced so far but the use is negligible.

Ishwaridatta Paneru, the spokesperson for the department, said that the delay in connection is not due to the supply issue but because the department has not made it mandatory.

He said that the supplier is saying that they can produce as much number plates requested by the department. The DoTM is in a dilemma whether to produce more such plates or not because of the confusion over which language to use for the long run.

The government has instructed the department to print 'embossed number plates' also in Nepali, so the department is making necessary preparations to this end.

Spokesperson Paneru said that the government’s capacity to provide all services related to embossed number plates is questionable.

According to him, it is necessary to have physical infrastructure such to have those number plates installed on the office premises of along with human resources, parking space, etc.

He said that since the transport management offices fall under the provincial governments, the department should not be the only one responsible for managing everything. He said that a plan will be made in coordination with these offices to determine the number of embossed plates required.

It is said that the installation of embossed number plates has been delayed due to court cases and sometimes due to language disputes. The department is extending the deadline for installing embossed number plates due to other reasons and not because of the supply issue. According to the last extension, all vehicles will have to comply with the rule to install embossed number plates  by next December.