Nepal Engineering Council prepares bill to conduct licensing test

KATHMANDU: Nepal Engineering Council (NEC) is all set to make provision for conducting licensing test before issuing license to students completing study in engineering within the country or abroad.

The Council is the engineering regulatory body that is responsible for making this sector more systematic and dignified.

The provision for administering the licensing exam has been mentioned in priority in the draft of the bill for amending the Engineering Council Act, 2055 BS.

NEC has initiated to amend the Act. The bill also has made provision for appointing the Registrar of the Council through open competition and making him/her work full time. The bill also has a provision for providing facilities to the Registrar commensurate with the Joint Secretary in the civil service.

Council Chair Dilli Raman Niraula said the suggestions and feedback related to reforms needed in the engineering sector received from the experts have been included in the bill.

The bill has been sent to the House of Representatives. It took nearly two years to prepare the bill. But it looks like it will take time for the bill to pass into a law as the House of Representatives stands dissolved at present.

Forty-five engineering colleges affiliated to six universities including the Tribhuvan University are running engineering programme in the country.

So far licenses would be issued within few days to a student applying for one after completing the due process.

Similarly, the Council has been issuing the license after verifying the equivalence with regard to students completing engineering degrees from 744 educational institutions of 41 countries.

The Council, established in 2056 BS, has so far issued license to 60 thousand 936 engineers. Among them, 52 thousand 880 are male and 7,562 are female.

Five thousand engineers are produced within the country each year while about 3,000 engineers completing their studies from abroad enter the workforce in the country annually.

The Council provides license in 52 various genres of engineering. Bachelor level programme is taught in 17 various engineering fields in Nepal at present.