Kathmandu-Nepal's Department of Passports has announced that the passport records of 10 million Nepali citizens have been securely migrated to a new passport management system.

The department said it has successfully completed the largest data migration project in Nepal's history and has begun providing passport services through the new passport production and management system.

Passport services were suspended on July 10 and 11 to facilitate the secure migration of passport data. In a statement, the department said, 'Following the implementation of this large scale information technology system and its go live, it is natural to experience some technical challenges, slower system performance and minor delays in passport issuance during the initial days.'

According to the department, its technical team, employees and specialists from the system development company are working around the clock to continuously monitor, test and improve the system in preparation for such situations. The department said it is fully capable of resolving these issues promptly while ensuring long term system stability.

The department has also requested that, during the initial phase of the new system, only applicants with urgent passport needs submit applications.

Nepal began issuing electronic passports on November 17, 2021. Until now, passport production had been handled by the French company Oberthur, which has since merged and been acquired under the name IDEMIA. The company produced 5.8 million passports for Nepal.

Following a competitive bidding process, a German company has now begun producing 6.4 million passports.

Under 'Package 1,' Germany's Mühlbauer will provide the system, including pre enrollment, enrollment, data management and delivery, while Germany's Veridos will be responsible for booklet production, personalization, quality control and packaging.

The department said the new system will also address several shortcomings seen in previous passports. One improvement is that the passport cover will no longer suffer from color fading.

In addition, the paper used in the passport will now contain 50 percent cotton, up from the previous 20 percent. According to the department, this matches the standard used in the passports of most countries around the world.

The cost of printing a 34 page passport booklet will also decrease from US$10.14 to US$8.62 per passport.