India Rolls Out e-Passports
To further improve the security parameters of the Indian passport, the Ministry of External Affairs has started the process of issuing e-Passports across the country. If you have a new passport or renewed your passport on or after May 28, 2025, then your new passport will be an e-Passport. Although this new passport looks exactly like the old passport, this passport has a chip on its cover below the Ashoka Chakra, it contains all the information about the passport holder. The e-Passport will reduce the time taken in the immigration process at the airport.
Arun Kumar Chatterjee, Secretary, Consular Passport and Visa Division, Ministry of External Affairs, India, stated that, e-Passports are convenient, secure, time-saving at airports, and compliant with international airport regulations. E-Passport holders will no longer need to waste time waiting for verification at airport immigration counters. With the new e-Passport, you simply need to insert the passport’s e-chip into the entry gate’s touchscreen, which will unlock the doors. Furthermore, the immigration officer will no longer need to verify every document. This is being done under the Trusted Traveler Program, a global version of Digi Yatra at Indian airports.
Till now, e-passports have been issued to 80 lakh people across the country. 60 thousand e-passports have been issued by Indian embassies abroad. To make the process of obtaining a passport in the country easy and accessible, the Ministry of External Affairs is opening Passport Facilitation Centres in every Lok Sabha constituency of the country. Till now, these Passport Centres have been opened in 511 Lok Sabha constituencies, and soon Passport Facilitation Centres will be opened in the remaining 32 Lok Sabha constituencies also. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, all efforts are being made by the Ministry to make the process of obtaining a passport more convenient and accessible for citizens.
