Kathmandu, Nepal June 7, 2022: The government’s decision to install embossed number plates on vehicles has bagged widespread controversies from different sectors. Questions are being raised from the general public to lawmakers for the controversial decision that embossed number plates must be affixed to all vehicles registered in Bagmati and Gandaki provinces by 16th July, 2022.
As the Department of Transport Management (DoTM) under the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport Management (MoPITM) had issued a notice specifying the deadline to install the embossed number plates, people seem panic to meet the deadline.
Speaking at a parliament meeting on Monday, Nepali Congress (NC) lawmaker Gagan Kumar Thapa expressed his concerns stating that the decision has created unnecessary problems among the general public. He also stated that the number plate has been charged exorbitantly despite its low quality.
The 5,500 embossed number plates will have to be installed daily to install as many as 1.5 million vehicles as per the notice; Thapa asked question about the integrity of the government’s decision and the capabilities of the company.
Another astonishing fact surrounded to the issue is revealed that the company contracted to install the embossed number plates is found to have blacklisted by the World Bank.
The government had extended the $44 million contract to a subsidiary of Tiger IT Bangladesh to install the computerized embossed number plates with features of camera-readable English digits and an embedded chip so as to ease GPS tracking.
It is reported that Tiger IT Bangladesh and its CEO Ziaur Rahman were blacklisted by the World Bank’s Sanctions Board for ‘collusive, corrupt and disruptive’ practices on a bid for one of its projects in Bangladesh on 24 April 2019.
