Colombo, Nov.30 (Daily Mirror) - The Department of Motor Traffic (DMT) has imported three new high-quality driver's license card printing machines to print all the driver's licenses that have been piled up and cannot be issued due to a lack of printing machines.

DMT Commissioner General Nishantha Anuruddha Weerasinghe told the Daily Mirror that with the use of the new machines, it will be possible to clear the backlog of driving licenses within the next 6 months.

The three printing machines were imported from Germany and arrived in the country on Monday (27).

"There are almost 900,000 driver's licenses piled up without being able to print them. Accordingly, the printing work will start this week," he said.

According to internal sources at the DMT Werahera branch, the machines are under installation, and issuing of driving licenses will begin on Monday, December 4.

"People face many difficulties when renewing their temporary licenses that have expired. So the department has decided to extend the validity period for two more years, including the new prints," the Commissioner General said.

Therefore, a gazette notification on the extension of the validity period will be issued.

Accordingly, temporary driving licenses were issued with a security code and a validity period of one year due to the shortage of printing cards.

The printing of cards for driving licenses is still underway. Printing is in the process, with nearly 4,000 cards being printed daily.

Nearly 500 to 600 driving license cards were printed to facilitate the one-day service, and the remaining cards were printed afterwards.