The government of India is planning to issue e-passports from next year onwards. According to a report of Economic Times, if you renew your passport next year or plan to issue a new one, you might get an e-passport embedded with an electronic microprocessor chip.
The report said that the first 20,000 official diplomatic e-passports have already been issued for a trial basis. The introduction of e-passports with chip might reduce the forgery they will be difficult to forge. Moreover, the new passports will also also enhance the immigration process.
The government is currently looking for an agency that could set up the IT Infrastructure and solution to implement the project. Once the components of the personalisation is installed into the current system, all 36 passport offices of India will issue e-passports.
A dedicated unit will work to enable issuance of 10,000-20,000 e-passports per hour in Chennai and Delhi, the report suggested.The National Informatics Centre is working with the Ministry of External Affairs and has issued a request for proposal (RFP) to select an agency for the responsibility. The e-passports will be based on International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standard to ensure exchange of information between countries.
Currently, the Indian passport is available in a booklet format. The new system will be introduced without disturbing the current processing system.
