Nepal strikes interim biometric passport supply agreement with IN Smart Identity

A stopgap agreement for IN Smart Identity (until recently known as Idemia Smart Identity) to supply Nepal with 700,000 biometric passports and personalization services has been reached.

The passports will be supplied in a series of lots, the first of which is expected to arrive within three weeks, the Department of Passports said in the agreement announcement.

Appointments for Nepalese passports were previously reduced to 1,000 a day in response to a supply shortage, which arose ahead of the biometric passport supply contract held by Veridos and Mühlbauer taking effect in March of next year. The DoP had been processing up to 6,000 passport applications per day when it revealed weeks ago it was down to its last 170,000 booklets. The government then engaged with representatives of IN SI, which supplied Nepal’s passports prior to the new contract and its own integration into IN Groupe following the Idemia IS acquisition.  The Kathmandu Post reports the DoP now holds less than 160,000 blank passports, which would have run out in December.

The appointment limit is being raised, now that a new supply deal has been reached.

Passports will be sent to people who have applied at Nepali missions abroad in two weeks or less, according to the announcement.

A local IN SI representative told the Post that the new booklets and services are being supplied for $10.13 each. A tentative deal was reported earlier in the month at a price of $10.31 each. The government intends to deliver passports to those who applied by Kartik 15 (which in the Gregorian calendar fell this year on November 5) within two weeks, and those applied for after that according to the previous schedule.

IN Smart Identity will also replace 20 enrolment systems destroyed in recent “Gen Z” protests, and provide compensation for 56,000 destroyed passports.

A source told the Post that Veridos has advised the government that the emergency passport procurement from IN Smart Identity is the only feasible option.

Article Topics

biometric passport  |  digital ID  |  government purchasing  |  IN Groupe  |  IN Smart Identity  |  Nepal  |  procurement