
The Indian government will start to issue e-passports embedded with electronic microprocessor chip from next year, a report on Thursday claimed.
According to the report by the Economic Times, the government had completed the trial of issuing 20,000 e-passports 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 hit the business of fake passports.
A dedicated unit will be set up with systems in Delhi and Chennai for issuing 10,000-20,000 passports per hour.
The National Informatics Centre, 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.