Electronic passports will be issued by the end of this year. Dr. Ausaf Sayeed, Secretary, Foreign Affairs gave this information to reporters in Hyderabad. He said that the e-chip and many features will be included in the passport book, which will make the Indian passport secure and it can be read through the machine.
Dr Saeed also said that efforts are being made to ease the immigration process through legal procedures. He said that this would eliminate the role of agents working illegally.
The prototype of the e-passport has been tested at an accredited laboratory of the US government. The front and back covers of the new passport may be thicker. There could be a small silicon chip in its back cover. The chip will be smaller than a postal stamp and will have a rectangular antenna. The chip will have 64 kilobytes of memory space. The chip will store the passport holder’s photograph and fingerprints. The chip will have the capacity to store information about 30 visits and international trips.
