With everything going digital, why should not passports so digital too? Well, that is exactly what the government is planning to do in the years to come.
Chances are that if you apply for a new passport or a re-issue of one in the year 2021, you could get yourself an e-passport. The e-passport is said to home an electronic microprocessor chip inside it, reported The Economic Times.
As per the report, as many as 20,000 of such passports are already in circulation. These are official diplomatic passports that were issued on a trial basis. And now the government is planning to provide them to all the citizens.
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The government is in the process of selecting an agency that will set up the IT infrastructure and solution to carry out the nationwide project.
The e-passports, reportedly, will allow quicker migration and remove the barrier of fake passports being used. Agency to issue e-passports will be set up with a capacity to issue 10,000 to 20,000 e-passports per hour.
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The government has also issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) in collaboration with the National Informatics Centre and the Ministry of External Affairs and will select an agency to set up an IT infrastructure as well as solution for e-personalisation of passports.
Once the proposal is final, all 36 passport offices across the country can issue e-passports to the citizens.
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According to the RFP, “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.“
