Plastic driving licences from Monday

By Constantinos Psillides

THE Department of Road Transport is moving from paper to plastic, announcing on Friday that driver’s licences will be issued in “credit card” form.

The new licences will be in effect as of Monday, June 29 and paper licences will gradually be replaced.

Drivers won’t be required to hand in their old licences immediately, but may do so at the cost of €40.

DRT director Soteris Kolettas explained that older driver’s licences will be valid up to when they expire, all the way to 2033.

Transport minister Marios Demetriades explained that the new driver’s licence will be harder to counterfeit and that they will be updated in regular intervals.

“Issuing new driver’s licences is proof that the ministry is devoted to cutting down on bureaucracy, modernising services available to the public and facilitating people,” said Demetriades.

Kolettas clarified that the new driver’s licence will bear a picture of the owner, as well standardised information that would be easily recognisable in all EU countries.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.