Kathmandu-The 15 year monopoly of French company Oberthur, now operating as IDEMIA following a merger and acquisition, on printing Nepal's passports has come to an end. The Department of Passports began electronic passport printing on Thursday under a new agreement with German companies.

The department issued a notice stating that all necessary preparations have been completed for issuing passports through the new system.

However, it warned that passport services provided by district administration offices, area administration offices, Nepali diplomatic missions abroad, and the Department of Passports may be disrupted for a few days during the transition from the existing system.

The department had already announced that passport services at district and area administration offices, as well as Nepali missions abroad, would remain suspended for three days from July 8 to July 10 due to the migration to the new system.

Passport services at the Department of Passports will also remain suspended for two days on July 9 and 10. According to the notice, regular passport services under the new system will resume from July 13.

The transition marks the end of IDEMIA's long standing dominance in Nepal's passport printing business. Nepal first signed a contract with the company on January 20, 2011, for the printing of 4.5 million machine readable passports (MRPs).

After the initial agreement, the government procured an additional 2.7 million passports through contract variations. In November 2020, IDEMIA secured another contract to print 2 million electronic passports. That contract was later expanded through repeated variations, increasing the total by an additional 3.8 million passports.

Overall, IDEMIA printed around 13 million Nepali passports, including both machine readable and electronic passports.

However, the company lost the competitive bidding process for the latest contract to print 6.4 million passports, awarded in 2025.

According to officials, IDEMIA made several attempts to retain the contract but was ultimately unsuccessful.

Under the new arrangement, the Department of Passports will work with two German companies for the production of 6.4 million passports. Under Package 1, German company Mühlbauer will handle the supply of systems, including pre enrolment, enrolment, data management and delivery. German company Veridos will be responsible for booklet production, personalisation, quality control and packaging.

The department said the new passports will also address several quality issues seen in previous editions. One recurring problem, the fading of the passport cover colour, is expected to be eliminated.

The paper quality will also improve. While previous passports used paper containing only 20 per cent cotton, the new passports will use 50 per cent cotton, which is the standard adopted by most countries.

The cost of printing a 34 page passport will also decline. The unit cost will fall from US$10.14 under the previous contract to US$8.62 under the new arrangement.

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