Rajan Khatiwada gets over 200 phone calls every day asking when the government will start issuing new driving licenses. But he doesn’t have an answer to the question.

Khatiwada, communication officer at the provincial Ministry of Infrastructure Ministry’s office in Hetauda, is one of the officials who responds when members of the general public call the ministry.

“We don’t know when the Department of Transport is going to start conducting driving licence tests. It hasn’t opened online applications,” said Khatiwada. “It gets really irritating when people ask us the same question over and over again throughout the day.”

It’s not just Khatiwada, officials in all seven provinces are going through the same problem after the department issued a notice on its website providing contact details of provincial officials, “who can be contacted for further information on driving licences.” Some officials say they have set up call diverting to stop the phone from ringing all the time.

The Department of Transport stopped conducting licence exams after the government imposed a lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus on March 24. Although the lockdown has been lifted, the department is yet to resume its services.

“It seems that the transport department in Kathmandu gave our numbers to cheat the public. They were irritated by the calls and passed it on to us,” said Chetnath Bhattrai, from the transport management Office in Itahari, Province 1.

“It’s the department’s job to unlock the software, we are getting over 300 calls in a day,” said Bhattrai.

Although the government has already removed the odd and even rule on vehicular movement in the Valley, and business and offices reopened, the department has not resumed its service.

The department’s data shows that every day around 8,000 people used to apply for driver's licence during the pre-pandemic days. Half of them would pass the test and get a new licence. With this delay, in the past nine months it is estimated nearly one million people who would have otherwise received their licence have been barred from getting it.

Earlier, the Department of Transport Management under the Ministry of Transport and Physical Infrastructure had announced that it plans to resume the service after Dashain, then it postponed it until Tihar. But even over a month after the festival, the department is yet to start conducting the tests.

Senior Superintendent of Police Shyam Krishna Adhikari, spokesperson at Metropolitan Traffic Police Division says many people with new two wheelers have come on the way without licence. “Many of them have bought two wheelers and their own vehicle after the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country, but they could not obtain a licence,” said Adhikari.

When the Post contacted Gogan Bahadur Hamal, director-general at the department, and asked him about the new notice with the contact details of provincial offices, he said he said he was not aware of it. “But we are planning to resume the licence tests, and for that we are working on the online application system,” said Hamal.

When asked to mention a specific date, Hamal didn’t have an answer.

“The department has kept our name and phone number on its website, but we haven’t been provided any new details to share with the public,” said Khatiwada.

“The department is cheating service seekers and troubling us. It should remove our name and contact details from the website at least until it gives us detailed information on when the service will resume,” he said.