The Department of Motor Vehicles has revealed that due to the lack of foreign exchange to import the smart cards used to print driving licenses, about 288,000 driving licenses that could have been printed since January could not be printed.
One million smart cards used to print driving licenses have been imported from Austria, but this is due to the lack of foreign exchange in the treasury, the head of the Department of Motor Vehicles’ Verahera office said in an inquiry.
The printing of new driving licenses and the renewal of expired licenses are being done by the Werahera office of the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Ministry of Finance has not responded well to the problem that has arisen so far.
A special discussion in this regard was held at the State Ministry of Transport recently.
It has been decided to prepare a temporary driving license for the applicants and to collect the foreign exchange and bring the cards as soon as possible. In addition, it has been decided to send a software driver verification software to the police as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, urinalysis equipment for heavy vehicle driver’s license applicants has also run out and those tests have become problematic.
When inquired by Dr. Savindra Gamage, Chairman of the National Transport Medical Institute, Aruna stated that the authorities have informed that these equipments will be provided within the next two weeks.
State Minister of Transport Dilum Amunugama stated that solutions to this problem will be discussed and informed in the next few days.
