Himalayan News Service
KATHMANDU: Finally, there is some good news as far as smart passports are concerned.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has said it is planning to start issuing Machine Readable Passport (MRP) in three phases depending upon its types — diplomatic, special and ordinary.
According to Foreign Secretary Madan Kumar Bhattarai, MoFa will begin issuing MRPs from November 19. MoFA will issue passports on that day to the country’s most five significant personalities — President Dr Ram Baran Yadav, Vice President Parmananda Jha, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, Chief Justice Ram Prasad Shrestha and Chairman of Constituent Assembly Subas Nembang.
A week later, the ministry will begin the second phase of passport issuance in which it will issue special passports to the government officials except secretaries. By December 15, MoFA will start issuing passports and travel documents too, said Bhattarai.
In accordance with Nepal’s latest request to the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the country has to replace existing hand-written passports with MRPs from January 1, 2011.
But still, MoFA has yet to get its first consignment of MRPs from Oberthur Technologies, a French firm that is authorised to print smart passports for Nepal.
According to sources, Oberthur has informed MoFA officials that Nepal will receive the first lot of passports on November 17, a delay by 12 days as per the initial deal signed with MoFA.
MoFA Secretary Bhattarai said some of the ministry has already started imparting necessary training to its officials for issuing MRPs, including the know-how on personalisation solutions.
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