Kathmandu, Nov. 17 -- The Department of Passports is issuing biometric passports starting Wednesday, in a significant development in Nepal's passport regime.

Satya Mohan Joshi, the 102-year-old historian, will receive the country's first e-passport from Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka at a function to be organised at the department's new building in Tripureshwar. Earlier, passports were issued from the department's old office at Narayanhiti.

After cancellation of three back to back global tender notices last year by the previous KP Oli government, the department is finally ready to issue e-passports that will ultimately replace the present machine readable passports (MRP). The new passports are printed by French firm IDEMIA.

Nepal depa...