A lost bluebook is replaced with a pratilipi (प्रतिलिपि), a duplicate of the vehicle registration certificate, issued by the transport office where the vehicle is registered. The order is fixed: traffic police first, transport office second. Nothing starts until the police recommendation exists.
This is a different errand from a lost licence, even though both are reported on the same police website. The licence duplicate is now an online service on your province eDLVRS portal. The bluebook duplicate is not. The vehicle half of those portals offers registration, tax payment and ownership transfer, and nothing called a duplicate. Only the police recommendation happens online. The rest is a counter visit, at one specific office.
Nepali motoring guides put the duplicate fee at NPR 500 for a two-wheeler and NPR 1,000 for a four-wheeler. That is the figure everyone quotes. The figure that governs is the one posted on your own office's citizen charter, so read it before you hand over money.
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The whole process in four steps
- Report the loss to traffic police and get the recommendation (सिफारिस), either online or at your district traffic office.
- Go to the transport office where the vehicle is registered, with the original citizenship and the vehicle's paperwork.
- Clear anything outstanding (tax, renewal, fines) and pay the duplicate fee.
- Collect the duplicate book.
Most of the pain in this process comes from step 2, and specifically from the word registered. More on that below.
Step 1: the police recommendation
Nepal Police runs a lost-document system. The page title is literally "Add Lost Document":
ldims.nepalpolice.gov.npOne thing the site does not say loudly: the footer reads Kathmandu Valley Traffic Police Office (काठमाण्डौ उपत्यका ट्राफिक प्रहरी कार्यालय). It is a valley system. If your vehicle and your district sit outside the valley, the online route may not cover you, and your district traffic police office is the reliable one. Ring them before you fill anything in.
The form has two buttons, Submit Application and Check Application. Use the second one later with your application ID instead of phoning.
There are three document types in the dropdown:
LICENSE BLUE_BOOK ROAD_PERMITPick BLUE_BOOK. The form is shared across all three types, so licence-labelled
fields sit next to the vehicle fields whichever one you choose. Fill in what
applies to the document you actually lost, and expect your vehicle number to
be the field that matters.
Two details catch almost everyone.
The upload limit. It accepts PNG or JPG only, maximum 1 MB. A PDF is rejected outright, and a photo from a recent phone is usually three or four times over the limit. Shrink the image before you start the form, not after you have filled in ten fields.
The "Issued Place" dropdown is a zone list. It does not offer the seven provinces. It still lists the old fourteen zones:
Mechi Koshi Sagarmatha Janakpur Bagmati Narayani Gandaki
Dhaulagiri Lumbini Rapti Bheri Karnali Seti MahakaliSo somebody looking for "Madhesh" or "Sudurpashchim" will not find it. Pick the zone the document was issued in, which is a different question from the province you live in now. Five of the seven province names are also zone names: Koshi, Bagmati, Gandaki, Lumbini and Karnali. Not one of those five zones covered the same districts as the province that later borrowed its name, so the entry that looks obviously right is often right for the wrong reason.
Submit, and save the application ID. The Nepali guides that walk through this put the wait at 72 hours to 7 days, with the recommendation sometimes landing inside 12 hours. It comes back as a document you download and print from the system itself, so check the application with your ID rather than waiting for a phone to ring.
Step 2: the right office, not the nearest one
A licence follows the person. A vehicle does not. It belongs to a registration file held at one transport office (यातायात व्यवस्था कार्यालय), and that is the office that can issue the duplicate. Turning up at a closer one wastes the day.
If you have a photo or photocopy of the bluebook, the issuing office is printed in it. An older-style plate narrows it down too: the zone letter and lot number point at the office that registered the vehicle. Failing both, phone the office you believe holds it and give them the plate number.
Two situations complicate this, and both are common:
- You bought the vehicle second-hand. The file sits wherever it was registered, which may be a province you have never been to.
- You moved and had the record transferred. Then the current office holds it. If you are not sure whether the transfer completed, ask before travelling.
What to take with you
The exact list varies between offices. This is the set the Nepali walkthroughs agree on, plus the papers the office will want current anyway:
| Item | Note |
|---|---|
| Police recommendation | Printed, from the online system or the district office |
| Original citizenship certificate | The original, not a photocopy |
| Three passport photos | The number the guides give |
| Vehicle file | The registration folder, if the papers are with you |
| Vehicle tax and renewal receipts | Must be current before anything is issued |
| Third-party insurance | Current policy paper |
| Engine and chassis numbers | Write them down if you have them anywhere |
| Photocopy of the lost bluebook | Not required, but it settles questions fast |
That vehicle file (सवारी फाइल) is worth understanding, because it is the step that decides whether you are out by lunchtime. Every registered vehicle has one at its office, holding the original purchase and registration papers, and it has to be found and checked before a duplicate is written. Bring your own copy if you have it. Either way, this is one more reason not to arrive at half past two.
What it costs
The reported figures:
| Item | Reported amount |
|---|---|
| Duplicate bluebook, two-wheeler | NPR 500 |
| Duplicate bluebook, four-wheeler | NPR 1,000 |
Two honest caveats sit on top of that.
There is no single national figure for anything here. Vehicle tax is a provincial tax under Schedule 6 of the constitution, and each province sets its own rates in its annual economic act. Licence services moved to the seven province eDLVRS portals on Shrawan 1, 2083 and took their fee schedules with them. At the counter this reduces to one habit: the amount posted on your office's citizen charter (नागरिक बडापत्र) is the amount, and a page quoting one rate for the whole country is quoting one province at best.
The duplicate fee is not the whole bill. If vehicle tax or renewal is outstanding, that gets cleared first, with whatever penalty has accumulated. For a vehicle that has been sitting unused for a few years, the back tax dwarfs the NPR 500.
How long it takes
Two waits stack, and only the first has a figure anyone publishes:
| Stage | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Police recommendation | 72 hours to 7 days, occasionally the same day |
| Office issuing the duplicate | No national figure. Your office's citizen charter states its own standard for this service |
That second row is not evasion. Nepali government offices post a citizen charter listing each service, the documents it needs, the fee and the time it takes, and for this service that posted standard is the only number with any authority behind it. Read it while you queue. Then ask for a phone number when you submit, so following up does not mean another trip.
Where do I download the lost bluebook form?
You cannot, and it is worth saying plainly because a lot of people search for a PDF that does not exist. There is no national downloadable "lost bluebook form".
What exists is two forms:
- The online lost-document form at
ldims.nepalpolice.gov.np, which is the police side. That is the only one you fill in on a screen. - The duplicate application at the transport office, written on the office's own format and handed over at the counter.
If a website offers you a downloadable Nepal bluebook duplicate form, treat it as someone else's template rather than an official document. Fill in the office's own paper.
The newspaper notice question
Some guides still tell you to publish a notice in a national daily before applying. The Nepali walkthroughs of the current process do not mention it, and neither does the police lost-document system.
It can still surface in a particular case, where ownership is disputed or the vehicle has been through a court or an insurance claim. Treat it as a question to ask at the counter, not a cost to arrange in advance. Do not pay a newspaper for a notice until an office has asked you for one.
If the vehicle is on loan
Before declaring anything lost, ring the finance company. Lenders in Nepal commonly hold the original bluebook as security for the length of a vehicle loan, and a surprising number of "lost" bluebooks are sitting in a bank's document room.
If the lender does hold it, applying for a duplicate creates a second book against one vehicle, which is a problem you do not want to explain later. The lender's release letter is also part of the paperwork when the loan closes, so that is the call to make first.
If you never completed the ownership transfer
Only the registered owner can apply. If you bought the vehicle and never completed नामसारी, the seller's name is still the one in the record, and the office deals with that name.
That turns a simple errand into a search for someone you may have bought a bike from three years ago. If you are in this position and the bluebook is still with you, do the transfer now rather than after it goes missing. Ownership transfer is one of the services on your province portal. More on the portals.
Torn, soaked or full, rather than lost
Three different problems get treated as one.
Damaged. A bluebook that is torn, water-damaged or unreadable is replaced by the same duplicate process. The difference is that you still have it, so a police recommendation is generally not needed. Take the damaged book with you; handing it in is usually part of being issued the replacement.
Burnt or destroyed. Handled as a loss. The police report matters more here, because there is nothing left to hand in.
Full. A bluebook has a finite number of pages for annual renewal entries. When they run out you are issued a fresh book, which is a continuation of the record rather than a pratilipi. Say which of the three you have when you ask, so you are quoted the right fee.
Driving while you wait
You are expected to be able to produce three things at a checkpoint: licence, bluebook and insurance. Commercial vehicles add the route permit. Not having the bluebook is its own documents problem, separate from anything else you might be stopped for.
So ask the office directly whether they issue anything you can carry in the meantime, and what it covers. Do not assume a payment receipt will do that job. Get something in your hand, or keep the vehicle parked.
What a duplicate changes, and what it does not
A pratilipi is a replacement copy of the same record. Ownership, registration date, tax history and category all stay exactly as they were. Nothing about the vehicle changes because the paper changed.
It will be marked as a duplicate, and that is worth knowing before you sell. A buyer who sees "प्रतिलिपि" sometimes assumes the vehicle is disputed or stolen. The answer is the paper trail: keep the police recommendation and the office receipt with the new book, and the story explains itself in ten seconds.
Common mistakes
- Going to the transport office first. The police recommendation comes first, and the office will send you away without it.
- Going to the nearest office instead of the one holding the registration.
- Losing the application ID from the online form. You need it to follow up.
- Uploading a PDF or a full-size photo. PNG or JPG, under 1 MB.
- Bringing a photocopy of citizenship. They want the original.
- Assuming outstanding tax can wait. It cannot, and it is usually the larger bill.
- Applying for a duplicate when the bank has the original.
- Paying for a newspaper notice nobody has asked you for.
If a licence is on the same list
Plenty of people reading this are at the transport office for two reasons, or have a family member about to sit the written exam. The likhit is drawn from a published DOTM bank of about 500 questions, which makes it one of the few exams where covering everything is realistic.
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Questions people ask
How much does a duplicate bluebook cost in Nepal?
Nepali motoring guides put it at NPR 500 for a two-wheeler and NPR 1,000 for a four-wheeler. The figure that binds is the one on your transport office's citizen charter, so read that before paying.
Can I apply for a lost bluebook online in Nepal?
Only the police recommendation. File it at
ldims.nepalpolice.gov.np and choose
BLUE_BOOK as the document type. The duplicate itself is issued in person at the
transport office where the vehicle is registered.
Which office issues the duplicate bluebook?
The transport office holding the vehicle's registration file, which is not necessarily the one nearest you. The issuing office is printed in the bluebook, and on an older-style plate the zone letter and lot number point to it.
How long does a duplicate bluebook take?
The police recommendation runs 72 hours to 7 days. The office side has no national figure: your transport office's citizen charter states its own standard for this service, and that is the number to hold it to.
Do I have to clear vehicle tax before getting a duplicate?
Yes. Tax and renewal need to be current, and any penalty on overdue tax is settled as part of the process. On a vehicle left unused for years, that is the main cost.
I lost my licence and my bluebook together. Is that one application?
Two. The police form takes one document type per submission, so file one for
LICENSE and one for BLUE_BOOK. They then go to different places: the licence
duplicate to your province portal, the bluebook to the transport office.
Can I drive while the duplicate is being processed?
Only if your office gives you something to carry. Ask directly what they issue and what it covers, and do not assume a payment receipt counts.
What if the bank has my bluebook?
Then it is not lost. Finance companies commonly hold the original for the life of a vehicle loan. Call the lender before you file anything, because a duplicate issued against a book the bank holds creates two books for one vehicle.
Keep reading
- Lost driving licence — the licence side of the same problem, which follows a different route.
- Your province portal — vehicle tax, registration and ownership transfer all live there.
- Traffic fines and the rules — the bluebook is one of the three documents a checkpoint asks for.
- Office contact numbers — phone before you travel to the wrong counter.
- How fees work now — why a single national figure no longer exists.
