Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

E-passports likely by 2013

Staff Reporter

New building for Thiruvananthapuram passport office proposed

USER-FRIENDLY: Union Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed inaugurating touch-screen facility at the Thiruvananthapuram passport office on Friday. Photo: S. Gopakumar

Thiruvananthapuram: Union Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed has said introduction of e-passports was under the active consideration of the Union Government and that it was yet to be decided whether the tamper-proof passports should be implemented in phases.

Addressing a press conference after inaugurating the additional facilities at the Regional Passport Office here on Friday, Mr. Ahamed said that e-passports, which will carry all information about the traveller, including an electronic image of his face, with a smart computer chip, would have to be introduced by 2013.

Mr. Ahamed said the Government was yet to decide on how to introduce the e-passports. The introduction of e-passports will make it impossible to tamper with passports.

The Union Minister said his Ministry was ready for constructing a new building for the passport office in the capital city. Some plots had been identified in the city and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had been requested to provide the land. The authorities will be able to provide more facilities to the public once the new building is constructed.

A proposal is also pending with the authorities to open the fourth District Passport Cell (DPC) in Thiruvananthapuram. Mr. Ahamed said 16 per cent of the applications for passport are received only through DPC's as people prefer to go to passport offices.

The number of persons applying for passports is on the increase in the country. Compared to the 1.30 lakh applications received in Thiruvananthapuram for passport, the Kozhikode passport office received 2.5 lakhs. The staff at the passport offices had been asked not to harass the applicants, he added.

The passport office at Thiruvananthapuram had been able to bring down the pendency level to zero. As many as 1.32 lakh passports were issued from the office in the city in addition to rendering 24,000 various miscellaneous services.

The touch-screen passport information kiosk commissioned with the support of State Bank of India will provide the status of the application on providing the file number or date of birth. The software had been developed by National Informatics Centre.

Electronically controlled token `Q' management system avoids queue in front of the counters. The application need approach the counter only when the token number is displayed on the electronic display boards.

Applicants can get the status of their application and general information on how to apply for passport in three languages by dialling 2461001, 2465005, 2467007 (pre-fix 95-471 while calling from outside the capital city). Colour television had also been installed.

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