Kathmandu, Oct. 31 -- Just a day ahead of the deadline for submission of a final tender for the printing of e-passports, the Department of Passports has extended the deadline to November 8.

The department's extension of the deadline, announced via a public note on the website of the Public Procurement Monitoring Office on Wednesday, by another week is being seen as an attempt to either cancel the tender or reduce the number of passports from 5 million to 2.5 million so that the rest can be printed after a secure printing press is established in the country.

After several prospective bidders failed to submit the bid documents due to frequent public holidays, Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali had instructed Ramkaji Khadka, director-general...