The Department of Transport Management has signed an agreement with the Security Printing Centre to print 1.2 million driving licences.

The department’s Director General Rajiv Pokharel and the centre’s Executive Director Devraj Dhungana signed the memorandum of understanding on Wednesday.

Under the agreement, the centre will print the licences within three to six months. The department still has more than 2.5 million licences pending for printing.

For applicants who urgently need licences—such as those going abroad—the centre will print up to 500 licences daily and provide them immediately. After printing 1.2 million licenses, the department plans to develop its own system for license printing.

The online application system for new licences has been suspended since September 9, after the department’s building was set on fire during the Gen Z protests. The blaze destroyed around 18,000 of the 22,000 licences that had already been printed, with only 3,000 recovered intact.

Director Keshav Khatiwada of the department said the exact number of destroyed licences cannot be confirmed until the system is restored. “We currently estimate 18,000 licences were burnt or lost. Accurate data will be available once the system is brought to operation,” he said.

Licences prepared for dispatch to transport offices and embossed number plates were also lost in the fire. The department had been providing expedited printing for those travelling abroad, producing licences within 24 hours of application.

With the system offline, all licence-related services across the country’s 42 transport offices have come to a halt. The department estimates it will take four to five months to restore the system fully, requiring an investment of Rs40-50 million to rebuild the destroyed data centre and procure new equipment.