India to introduce biometric passports

The government plans to put in place a system for issuing biometric passports or e-passports by the end of this year and citizens can get them by 2008, Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma said on Friday.

The e-passports would be valid for 10 years, Sharma said. Several countries have begun incorporating biometric information, such as retinal scans, in their passports as part of tighter security arrangements.

The "cumbersome" process of issuing passports has also been simplified by reducing the number of documents to be provided by applicants and they are now usually issued within four weeks, Sharma said.

Instead of 14 documents required earlier, only three are now needed while applying for a passport and one of them should have a photograph of the applicant, he said.

The time for issuing passports under the Tatkal system too has been reduced. Instead of 20 days, passports will now be issued in 14 days. Expired passport will be re-issued in seven days instead of a fortnight earlier.

In general cases, passports should be issued within four weeks, Sharma said. All passports are now machine printed to prevent occasional "harassment" in foreign countries due to bad handwriting on the documents, he said.

Steps are being taken to check "illegal" activities of agents and touts in passport offices. Closed circuit TVs were being installed in these offices to keep a watch on "malpractices", he said.

The 14 documents that people can submit with their passport applications are electoral photo identity cards, service identity card issued by Central or state governments, SC, ST, OBC certificates, freedom fighter identity cards, arms license, property documents such as pattas or registered deeds, ration cards, pension documents, railway identity cards, income tax identity (PAN) cards, bank, kisan, post office passbooks, student identity cards issued by recognized educational institutions, driving licenses and birth certificates issued under the RDB Act.

Sharma, a Rajya Sabha member from Himachal Pradesh, later inaugurated a new passport office in Shimla, fulfilling a long-pending demand of people of the state. Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh was present on the occasion.

The passport office is the 32nd in the country and similar offices will be set up in Amritsar, Coimbatore, Dehradun and Raipur, Sharma said.