Regional Passport Officer (RPO) Vishnu Vardhan Reddy on Wednesday said the e-Passport system will come into force by this year-end or first half, next year (2020).
Talking to newsmen after inaugurating ‘Special Passport Mela’, organised especially for journalists at Passport Seva Kendra (PSK), Begumpet here, Mr Reddy said the tender processes for e-Passport was started and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) would decide when it will be introduced.
In the new e-Passport System, Reddy said a chip would be installed in the Passport. All the family members details were be available in the chip. It will be able prevent illegal activities like illegal migrants, NRI marriage frauds and fake passport web-sites’, he said.
Stating that the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana had occupied number one and two positions in the country in police verification, Mr Reddy said AP and Telangana would take three and four days respectively for it.
Elaborating issuing Passports details, Reddy said a total number of 5.49 lakhs application had been received in 2018. Of them 5.20 lakh passports were issued. In 2019, 2.69 passports out of 2.8 lakhs applications were issued in the last six months, he said.
For benefit of the rural people, passports are also being issued through the Post Offices during the last two-and-a-half years. Mr Reddy said 414 Post Offices across the country were utilising this service, of which 14 are in Telangana.
As many as 45,000 passports had been issued in 2018 and 35,000 during the last six months in 2019, he said.
Elaborating on some key challenges, Reddy said the fake passport website, NRIs marriage and illegal migrants were some of the key challenges for concerned passport office.
