The government made the request to the UN agency since it is certain to miss the ICAO-set deadline for adoption of the machine-readable travel documents as it is not possible to get MRPs printed from India before the deadline, said officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA). [break]
Nepal is required to introduce the machine-readable travel documents as the non-machine readable ones to be issued after March 31 will not be recognized by ICAO member countries for purposes of international travel. However, traditional non-machine readable passports issued before April 1 will still be valid for international travel.
MoFA officials told myrepublica.com that they expect to adopt the machine-readable passports (MRPs) by the end of July as the government has already decided to award the MRP project to India and India has sought 10 weeks to supply a first lot of the passports to Nepal.
The government decided to award the MRP contract to India last week and an agreement between Nepal and India in this regard is expected to be signed by the end of the week.
On Monday, the ministry wrote a letter to Nepali Ambassador to Canada Dr Bhoj Raj Ghimire to register the request with ICAO General Secretary Raymond Benjamin, expecting that the UN agency will circulate Nepal´s request to other ICAO members. ICAO is headquartered in Canada.
"The government is also writing to each ICAO member to consider Nepal´s request for deadline extension," said a MoFA official on condition of anonymity.
In the letter to the ICAO General Secretary, Nepal has also sent its plan of action for introducing the machine-readable passports by the end of July.
This is the second time Nepal is making such a request to the UN agency. In February, ICAO had told Nepal that it could not extend the MRP deadline beyond April 1.
kiran@myrepublica.com
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