No Licenses, No Plates: Nepal’s Transport Services Paralyzed After DoTM Office Attack

16th September 2025, Kathmandu

Nepal’s transportation sector has been thrown into chaos following the extensive destruction of the Department of Transport Management’s (DoTM) Minbhawan office during the Gen Z protests.

Nepal’s Transport Services

The coordinated acts of vandalism and arson on September 9 have crippled essential services, leaving millions of citizens in a state of uncertainty as all vehicle registration, license issuance, and number plate printing services are indefinitely suspended nationwide.

The scale of the damage is staggering and points to a targeted attack on the country’s transportation infrastructure. The perpetrators destroyed the nation’s only smart card license printing machine and the equipment used for producing embossed number plates.

The central servers, which contained all digital records of licenses and vehicle registrations, were also reportedly wiped out. This has brought all related services to a grinding halt, with the DoTM’s official website down and the popular Nagarik App, which once provided digital license access, rendered non-functional.

The losses extend beyond technology. According to initial reports, a massive stockpile of 20,000 printed driving licenses and 616,000 embossed number plates that were awaiting provincial distribution were either stolen or destroyed.

The loss of these physical documents and plates is a major setback, creating an immediate backlog for an already overburdened system.

The destruction of the embossed number plate printing machine is particularly concerning, as the government had been pushing for the nationwide adoption of these high-security plates. The loss of this equipment and the prepared plates throws the entire project into jeopardy.

The ripple effects of this incident are already being felt across the country. Individuals who were preparing to apply for new licenses or renew their existing ones are now in limbo.

The lack of a functional system also creates a major headache for those who need to transfer vehicle ownership or acquire new number plates. While DoTM officials claim that a recent backup of data is safe, the physical damage to the equipment means that a full system recovery could take months, or even years, to complete.

This lengthy downtime will have a massive economic impact, disrupting commerce and causing significant frustration for the general public.

This is not the first time Nepal’s transport services have faced disruption. The sector has long been plagued by issues ranging from frequent technical glitches to a lack of proper infrastructure and bureaucratic hurdles.

However, the recent attack on the DoTM office represents an unprecedented crisis, one that will require a coordinated and sustained effort from the government and its partners to resolve.

The destruction of physical and digital assets at the core of the transport system serves as a stark reminder of the vulnerability of critical public services.

As the government begins the long and arduous process of assessment and reconstruction, citizens are left to navigate a world without a functioning transport administration. The return to normalcy will be a slow and painful journey, with millions of lives and livelihoods affected.

For more: Nepal’s Transport Services