Army to take over printing of driving licenses from 2021

by Zulfick Farzan 16-07-2020 | 4:15 PM

Colombo (News 1st); Sri Lanka Army is due to take over printing of driving licenses from next year, announced the Ministry of Defence.

This was revealed, following a discussion chaired by the Minister of Passenger Transport Management Mahinda Amaraweera with the participation of Defence Secretary Maj. Gen. (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne, Acting Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Army Lt. Gen. Shavendra Silva and Secretary to the Transport Ministry Gamini Senevirathna, recently.

Previously, the printing of driving licenses was outsourced to an overseas private entity paying an exorbitant amount of government money to get the digital driving license cards printed, the Defence Ministry said.

According to the Ministry of Passenger Transport Management, a cost of Rs. 1,340 had incurred for printing a single license card while the entire process could have been undertaken locally.

Expressing his views during the discussion held, Defence Secretary had mentioned that the initiative would ultimately result in producing new driving license cards in a more cost-effective way.

He had asserted that, printing license cards for a cost of Rs. 1,340 was a crime.