Dept. resumes issuing driving licences

by Rajmi Manatunga

The Motor Traffic Department has decided to resume the issuing of driving licences after a deadlock of nearly three months.

Accordingly, a special one-day programme will be launched from today to expedite the licence issuing process which came to a halt in April following the expiry of the tender for printing driving licences.

Deputy Commissioner Pradeep Ratnayake told the Daily News that the decision to restart issuing driving licences was taken after the Cabinet agreed last week to further extend the tender period of the present contractor for printing driving licences.

"The tender awarded to the relevant printer expired nearly three years back and the Cabinet has been extending the tender period by three months after that.

However, in April there was no Cabinet approval and this caused a standstill in the licence issuing process," he said. Ratnayake said the Department was facing a backlog of around 50,000 driving licences owing to the deadlock and that swift measures will be taken to clear this backlog before long.

"Accordingly, we have decided to recommence the special one-day programme whereby licences could be renewed and new licences could be obtained for lost ones within one day by paying Rs. 500," he added.