The number of driver’s licenses piled up for printing at the Department of Motor Traffic (DMT) has exceeded 900,000, it was reported.

This situation has arisen due to the lack of cards and insufficient infrastructure, the DMT said.

Due to the shortage of foreign exchange, it was not possible to import cards to print driver’s licenses a year ago, but later steps were taken to import 1 million cards from Austria including 500,000 cards with smart chips and 500,000 cards with QR code.

The number of cards that can be printed in a day is 2,000 as only two machines are in proper condition in the Werahera DMT Office.

All 500,000 cards with the chip have been printed, and the printing of the cards with the QR code started yesterday (16).

However, DMT Commissioner General Nishantha Anuruddha Weerasinghe said between six thousand and seven thousand driving licenses are expected to be printed per day from next month since three more printers are to be received this month.

Accordingly, he said that the driver’s licenses of all the applicants will be issued in six months.

If the licenses of those currently issued with temporary driving licenses have expired or if the driving license card has not yet been received, they can be extended from the DMT Werahera office or the district offices.