With no end in sight to the country’s persistent traffic jams at peak hours, the General Traffic Department (GTD) at the Ministry of Interior (MoI) is said to be auditing the tens of thousands of licenses that have been legally issued but the purpose for which they were granted has expired. Though these licenses have technically expired they have not been withdrawn.
For instance, more than 40,000 such licenses were issued to expatriates who arrived in the country to work as drivers for a Kuwaiti sponsor or company, but later changed their profession to one that made them ineligible for a driving license.
There are also over 20,000 driving licences granted to university students that have technically expired when they completed their studies, but most of them have not surrendered their student licenses and they continue to drive vehicles.
Though illegal to use, many former household drivers and former students continue to drive around using these licenses, as they are aware that the maximum fine they could face if caught for driving with an expired license is only five dinars.
Previously, all that the GTD could do was not to renew such licenses when their validity dates expired. But now, the GTD is reported to be coordinating with the MoI to consider treating expatriates found driving around with such licenses as illegal drivers and summarily deport the offenders.
The department is also said to be in talks with the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) and the Residence Affairs Authority at MoI, so that expatriate will be able to renew their residence permit only after ascertaining that there are no ‘blocks’ issued against their name in the GTD system, for holding an expired license. And, if there is such a ‘block’, the person will be able to renew their residence only after surrendering the expired license to GTD and getting the residence ‘block’ removed.
In an additional step, the GTD is also in the process of issuing a circular that will prohibit driving any vehicle with a license issued for a different purpose, even if the date on it is still valid, thereby compelling the holder to surrender the old license and replace it with the new one.
In this regard, it is noteworthy that the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior, Sheikh Faisal Al-Nawaf, had recently requested a study to stop issuing or legalizing the issuance of driving licenses to residents, until and after a new mechanism for granting licenses can be put in place.
