That’s it. The Department of Passports has signed an agreement with a French supplier to purchase 7 lakh passports.
According to the department, after several rounds of negotiations, an agreement has been reached with the French company Idemia to buy passports to avoid the shortage of passports. The purchase agreement has been made to print passports at the old price. With this agreement, the immediate shortage of passports will be resolved in a short time.
According to a press release issued by the Department on Friday evening, the first phase of passports will arrive in Nepal within three weeks.
Earlier, the Department used to issue only 1,000 passports daily citing the expiry of passport stock.
A meeting of the Council of Ministers on Friday afternoon had decided to give permission to the department to purchase passports.
On September 23 and 24, protesters vandalised and torched the Department of Passports, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and district administration offices across the country, destroying a large number of passports.
