The Department of Transport has published a protocol for conducting driving licence tests on its website.

Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the department has not issued new driving licences since March last year when the country went under a lockdown. Though the department opened online applications for driving licences in mid-January this year, it was closed after three months in April following a surge in Covid-19 cases.

Now, the department is planning to conduct the licence tests by adopting strict health and safety protocols

“We have written to all the transport offices to resume the examsdriving licence exams byby following the health and safety protocols,,” said Loknath Bhusal, the spokesperson for the department. “The exams will likely resume from the first week of September.”

The department had been waiting for a nod from the Covid-19 Crisis Management Centre to resume the driving licence exams.

The department’s records show that around 700,000 licence applications have been pending for processing for a year. It is estimated that over a million people are in need of new driving licences.

“We realised that we can no longer keep such a big number of people waiting, so we have published a protocol for conducting trials and exams for new licence, one center can’t keep more than 100 people in one shift,” said Bhusal.

After the transport department stopped issuing licences, many students who went abroad for higher studies as well as migrant workers could not get their driving permits.

The department’s ‘Covid-19 Pandemic Special Vehicle Licence Exam (Conduct and Management 2076) mandates no more than 25 candidates in an exam hall. The protocol also requires the transport offices to conduct the written exam in venues that have plenty of open space where social distance rule could be enforced, like school buildings.

The protocol also states that all candidates should wear masks and follow social distancing. It also prohibits large gatherings at the trail or written exam centres.