Every Indian Will Get Chip-Based E-Passports With Biometric Access: How Will It Work?

E-passports are soon to be rolled out for all citizens, as confirmed by Ministry of External Affairs Secretary Sanjay Bhattacharyya. 

We had previously reported that if you apply for a new passport or re-issue a current one in 2021, you will likely get the e-passport. 

E-Passports To Be Rolled Out Soon? MEA Secretary Confirms

The MEA Secretary said that the e-passports will be secured with biometric data and will also make sure that the immigration process will be smoother across the globe.

There were reports that the Government of India has started the process of issuing e-passports to the Indian citizens, and the Centre, on a trial basis, had issued 20,000 official and diplomatic e-passports embedded with an electronic microprocessor chip.  This move might reduce the forgery as e-passports will be difficult to forge and help faster immigration for the passengers.

All 36 passport offices in India will issue e-passports after the components of the personalization system are installed in the current issuance system.

The e-passports will be incorporated without any disturbances to the current system and also without any increase in the current issuance time.

On June 24 2020, the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar while emphasizing the need to speed up the launch of e-passports had said their introduction will greatly strengthen the security of Indian travel documents.

Procedures To Apply Will Remain Same

Jaishankar also said that the ministry is working with Indian Security Press, Nashik, and National Informatics Centre for e-passports with advanced security features.

The National Informatics Centre, which is working in tandem with the MEA, has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) on August 12 to select an agency to set up the IT Infrastructure for the e-passports.

The target output predicted by the Centre is 10,000 e-passports per hour and 50,000 per day. Although this can be hastened by 20,000 per hour and 1,00,000 per day.

As per reports, the procedures for applying the form will remain the same, right from filing the application form on the government website to choosing your location and date of the appointment. The new system won’t be affecting the issuance time as well.