E-Passport For All Indians From Next Year: Report

The Indian government will begin to release chip implanted e-passports from next year, a report on Thursday said.

According to a report by the Economic Times, the Indian government had completed the trial of issuing 20,000 e-passports embedded with electronic microprocessor chip and now will issue such passports with the help of an agency that will be responsible for setting up IT infrastructure and providing solution regarding the project.

Currently, passports are issued on booklets and with the latest advancement, immigration formalities could be done in a rapid manner and will effectively combat the businesss of fake passports.

A special unit will be established with systems in Delhi and Chennai for issuing 10,000-20,000 passports per hour.

The National Informatics Center, which is working with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for the project has sent a Request for Proposal (RFP) on Wednesday for selection of an agency for setting up an IT infrastructure.

“It will require a completely dedicated set-up and processes for e-passport document issuance. The e-passport has international ramifications because of its usage as credible identity document issued by any sovereign country, it is absolutely necessary to keep track of any security and quality issues,” the report added quoting RFP.