Indian citizens to soon get e-passports, says MEA secy

Indian citizens will soon get chip-enabled e-passports which will ensure a smooth passage through immigration posts around the world. The development was confirmed by the MEA Secretary Sanjay Bhattacharya in a recent tweet. He said that these e-passports will secure biometric data, be compliant with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards and will be produced at Nashik’s India Security Press.
 
“India to soon introduce next-gen e-passport for citizens. Secure biometric data. Smooth passage through immigration posts globally. ICAO compliant. Produced at India Security Press, Nashik,” Bhattacharya tweeted.

 This passport will be embedded with an electric microprocessor chip, thus, making it more difficult to forge passports and enable quick immigration for international passengers.

“The ministry will issue chip-enabled e-passsports with advanced security features to citizens. The personal particulars of the applicants would be digitally signed and stored in the chip which would be embedded in the passport booklet. In case, anyone tampers with the chip, the system shall be able to identify it, resulting in the failure of the passport authentication,” the Ministry of External Affairs had said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha in March last year.
 
All 36 passport offices in India will issue e-passports after it is inducted into the current passport system. The e-passport will be based on the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards so that these e-passports are interoperable between various countries.