In Nepal, all road vehicles with or without a motor (except bicycles) are tagged with a registration number. This is issued by the state-level Transport Management Office, a government agency under the Department of Transport Management.[1] The license plates must be placed in the front as well as back of the vehicle. The international vehicle registration code for Nepal is NEP.
The President of Nepal travels in an official vehicle that has no number on its plates. Instead it has the Coat of Arms of Nepal embossed on it.
The current system was first introduced in 2017 and was scheduled to replace the previous format from 2018 onwards. However, Nepalese Supreme court issued an order to halt the issuing of this new format. This was due to a petition that was filed, against the government's dropping of Devanagari script from license plates and replacing it with Latin Script, and also about whether the RFID chips in the plates could be used for spying on public. The court order was finally rescinded in December 2019, and starting from July 2020, this format has been issued.[2] These new plates replace Zones that were dissolved on 2015, with Provinces. These license plates are embossed, and have a uniform black on white background color scheme. They are in Latin, and utilize FE-Schrift font.These plates come with a RFID microchip that enables the government to maintain uniformity in issuance of number plates and prevent duplication. Similarly, the new number plates also help authorities to maintain digital records of vehicles plying on the road tolls, collect revenue on time and control auto theft.
The plates have a strip on their left side, with the national flag of Nepal, as well as a blue colored text NEP.
The plates consist of the following format: PROVINCE X AB 0123.X can be any letter between A and K, which denote the classification of the vehicle:
The plates come in different sizes and shapes depending on the size of the vehicle, as well as whether the plate is to be installed at the front of the vehicle and at the rear.
3-wheelers, which consist of vehicles such as rickshaws are issued license plates in the following dimensions and configuration:
Typical cars, also referred to as "light and medium vehicles" are issued license plates in the following dimensions and configurations:
Heavy vehicles, such as trucks and buses, are issued license plates in the following dimensions and configurations:
The previous system of the licence plate of Nepal consisted of four parts composed of letters (X) and numbers (#) in the X # X #### format:
See main article: Zones of Nepal. All former fourteen zones of Nepal had their own abbreviated code for reference purpose. These codes were normally single letter in Nepali and two letters (sometimes three letters also, but the third letter 'a' can be omitted) in English. The following is the list of zonal codes in both languages:
| Zone | Code in Nepali | Code in English | |
|---|---|---|---|
| मे | ME | ||
| को | KO | ||
| स | SA | ||
| ज | JA | ||
| बा | BA | ||
| ना | NA | ||
| ग | GA | ||
| लु | LU | ||
| ध | DH | ||
| रा | RA | ||
| भे | BHE | ||
| क | KA | ||
| से | SE | ||
| म | MA |
These license plates used Devanagari numerals numbers as opposed to Arabic numerals. Below is a table for reference:
| Modern Devanagari | Western Arabic | |
|---|---|---|
| ० | ||
| १ | ||
| २ | ||
| ३ | ||
| ४ | ||
| ५ | ||
| ६ | ||
| ७ | 7 | |
| ८ | ||
| ९ |
For the purpose of vehicle registration Vehicle & Transport Management Act, 2049 (1992) and Vehicle & Transport Management Rule, 2054 (1997) of Nepal, classifies vehicles into the following 5 main categories on the basis of size and capacity:[3]
The above-mentioned each categories are further divided into 5 sub categories on the basis of ownership and service-type which are as follows:
| Categories | Vehicle Size | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy Vehicle Medium Vehicle | Light Vehicle | Three-Wheeler Two-Wheeler | |||||
| Private | क | KA | च | CA | प | PA | |
| Public | ख | KHA | ज | JA | फ | PHA | |
| Government | ग | GA | झ | JHA | ब | BA | |
| Diplomatic | सी.डी. | C.D. (see.dee.) | सी.डी. | C.D. (see.dee.) | — | ||
| Tourist | य | YA | य | YA | य | YA | |
| National Corporation | घ | GHA | ञ | ÑA | — | ||
In Nepal, various vehicle types were classified as mentioned above. Those classifications of vehicles were indicated by the color of their license plates. For example, the colors of license plate for Private owned vehicles and Government owned vehicles were different.Vehicle size was indicated by a 1-letter code in the format X # X ####.Otherwise Nepal did not enforce any standardized size or font, or even a specific shade of the color associated with each classification. Thus license plates looked quite diverse in their shape.
Privates vehicles in Nepal use Red license plates with white letters.Private vehicles are given the following vehicle size codes:
Public vehicles of Nepal have license plates with black licence plates with white letters.Public/Commercial vehicles are given the following vehicle size codes:
Nepalese vehicles owned by the government have white licence plates with red letters.Such vehicles are given the following vehicle size codes:
The National corporations such as Nepal Telecom, Dairy Development Corporation, and Nepal Electricity Authority use Yellow number plates with dark-colored (Usually black, sometimes blue) letters.Such vehicles are given the following vehicle size codes:
Vehicles meant for the transportation of tourists use green plates with white letters. Such vehicles are owned by travel agencies and hotels.Regardless of vehicle size, such vehicles are given the following code:
Vehicles registered in Nepal under the name of foreign diplomatic agencies such as embassies, consulates, or missions use blue plates with white letters.Generally, "Corps Diplomatique" vehicles have the following format: ## सी.डी. ##. "सी.डी." is literally read as "see.dee.", and is meant to be the Nepalese equivalent of the code "C.D.". Other vehicles such as vehicles belonging to consular aides, Honorary Consular Positions generally use H.C.C format with "blue" plates with "white" letters. Most other countries do not provide Diplomatic(Blue) Number Plates to Honorary Consular Positions. A lot of the times, since these vehicles belong to foreigners, their license plate comes with an English translation as well.