Nepal-IDEMIA negotiations in final stages amid passport crunch

French firm pushes to sell 1 million passports. Officials hesitant, but PM Karki positive.

Negotiations between the Department of Passports (DoP) and IDEMIA, the French firm that has been providing passports to Nepal from 2010 to earlier this year, are in the final stages of negotiations to procure stopgap passports. This comes as the current stock dwindles and the new contract for biometric passports awarded to German firms Veridos and Muehlbauer will only take effect from mid-March next year.