Explained: What is an e-passport, how will it work and how to apply for it

The government has been planning to roll out smart e-passports with secure biometric data. It had first announced issuance of e-passports in 2019.

An e-passport will hold the same information as the traditional printed ones such as the holder’s name and date of birth along with biometric information.

The security features on the e-passport would make it sturdier and ease the passage of passengers through immigration posts globally.

Earlier this month, Sanjay Bhattacharya, Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, had said India would soon get new passports that would be in tune with the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

The e-passports will come with a small silicon chip embedded in the jacket with 64 kilobytes of memory. The chip will have important security-related data encoded on it, including digitally signed personal particulars of the applicant. The passports are likely to have a thicker front and back covers and may take a few seconds to read. The new passports are likely to store up to 30 visits.

These will also have a digital signature unique to each country that can be easily verified using a certificate.

The system will be able to take cognizance of malicious intentions such as tampering with the chip and passport authentication will automatically fail in such cases.

The government has awarded the contract to procure the electronic contactless inlays compliant with ICAO standards to Nashik-based India Security Press (ISP). ISP will also procure the operating systems required for manufacturing the e-passports.

The government will start issuing the new passports as soon as ISP completes procurement of the electronic contactless inlays and operating systems.

The application process for the new e-passports will be the same as the traditional passports, Business Insider reported. Till now, the government has issued 20,000 official and diplomatic e-passports, but not to ordinary citizens of India. The government had issued the first e-passport to former President of India, Pratibha Patil, in 2008.