First MRP consignment likely to arrive by early Nov

KATHMANDU: The country’s wait for Machine Readable Passports (MRPs) is likely to be over shortly, with the first consignment of the smart passports expected to arrive by the first seek of November.

A senior official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said on condition of anonymity today, “MRP booklet printing is already underway in France and we expect to get the first consignment by the first week of November.” On August 27, MoFA and French firm Oberthur Technologies had signed an agreement for printing and supplying some 4 million MRP booklets within the next five years, and providing other solutions including personalisation of MRPs.

As per the agreement, Oberthur has to supply the first lot of MPR booklets within 70 days from the date of signing the contract – by November 5.

The French firm will supply each booklet for $3.59 and the total cost of the project will be approximately $14.36 million.

In the first lot, Oberthur will supply 400,000 MRP booklets, including 10,000 diplomatic passports, 15,000 special

passports and 25 travel documents, by November 5, according to the official.

An Oberthur representative in Kathmandu confirmed that the printing of MRP booklets is underway in France. “Works are going on smoothly as per the deal with the government,” the representative said, adding, “Providing the MRP booklets on time won’t be difficult.”

Harish Chandra Ghimire, the MoFA assistant spokesperson, informed that the French firm has also expedited work on the installation of hardware and software at the MoFA for MRP personalisation. “We are all set to train our staffers on MRP issuance,” he added. As per its commitment to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the regulatory and directive UN body of all trans-national flights, the foreign ministry will have to issue MRPs from January 1, 2011 at all costs. During the MRP signing ceremony, foreign ministry officials had said they would start issuing MRP two weeks after receiving the booklets. “We will try to

issue MRPs at the earliest,” said Foreign Secretary Madan Kumar Bhattarai.

As per its earlier commitment to the ICAO, Nepal was required to switch to MRPs by April 1, 2010. However, the country missed the deadline due to a series of scandals on the MRP procurement process.

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