 "ePassports likely from next year")
The Consular, Passport and Visa (CPV) division of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), which is responsible for issuing passports, would issue high security electronic passports and a fresh logo impression on it to the citizens likely from the next calendar year.
"A task force set up by the special secretary, MEA, comprising individuals from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Finance and External Affairs, National Informatics Centre, Indian Security Press, Nashik, would deliberate further and arrive at a decision this year," chief passport officer Muktesh K Pardeshi told mediapersons here today.
Parallel to this, a technical committee under the task force was working on aspects including price of chips, configuration, availability and implementation viabilities across all regional passport centres. The CPV is currently offering e-passports for diplomats and consular officials.
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The new generation electronic-passports, embedded with smart chips and digital signatures of authorised passport signatories, would help achieve transparency and nail out fake ones, he added.
The office has no plans to charge any additional amount for these new features and services from the applicants.
New complex proposed at Hyderabad
Regional passport officer K Srikar Reddy said the Central Public Works department (CPWD) has proposed to develop a new building complex at the existing Hyderabad office involving Rs 30 crore. The proposal would be finalised in the next few months. When fully developed, this would free up congestion.
As part of e-governance, he said the Cyberabad police jurisdiction would work out a pilot programme on execution of police verification through hand-held devices. This was successfully tried in West Godavari district, bringing down the number of police verification days to five.
In Andhra Pradesh, the number of police working days for a passport is 17. Country-wise, Visakhapatnam is the highest with 11 days.
Going by the 14% growth in issuances in the last two years, passports issued by the CPV is expected to touch 10 million by 2015, said Pardeshi. Total passports issued in the calendar year 2013 stood at 8.5 million, including 1.3 million issued outside India. In 2012, it was 7.36 million for both.
In India, around 4% of population have passports totaling 50 million.