e-Passports to be issued from next year: CPO

Hyderabad, Feb 7 : Chief Passport Officer Muktesh K Pardeshi on Friday announced that the new generation electronic passport, which aims to secure the data and curb the menace of fake passports, are likely to be introduced by next year.

Addressing a press conference here, Pardeshi said that the Task Force, which was set up to study the e-Passport project, held discussions with all concerned department. Therefore, the e-passports may be issued to the new applicants from next year. The proposed e-passport will be a plastic card embedded with an electronic chip containing all the details of the passport holder, including biometric information, besides a digital signature of the passport issuing authority.

The CPO informed that in 2013, the Government of India has issued close to 85 lakh passports and other related documents globally and recorded a growth of 14-15% over 2012, wherein 73.6 lakh passports were issued. “Going by this trend, we are expecting to cross the one-crore mark in issuance of passports annually by the end of 2014 calendar year or by early 2015,” he said.

Regional Passport Officer (RPO) K Srikar Reddy said the trial for hand-held devices (palm-top computers) for police constables, enabling online police verification at citizens’ doorstep is presently on in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh and now it is contemplated to start it on a pilot basis under Cyberabad Police Commissionerate in Hyderabad and later to other parts of the state and country.

Hyderabad tops the list of RPOs in terms of the number of applications processed and services rendered at 6.4 lakh and 6.3 lakh, respectively, with 8.9% of total passport services in the country, Reddy said.

He added that Visakhapatnam, with 11 days, tops the list of RPOs on time taken in police verification. Country’s second Passport Seva Laghu Kendras (Mini PSKs) will be inaugurated on Saturday in Karimnagar district, he said.

Srikar Reddy also informed that the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) has proposed to develop a new building complex at the existing Hyderabad office at a cost of Rs 30 crore.  INN