Electronic passports in the offing: Mukherjee

DEHRADUN: The government will soon launch electronic passports and simplify procedures for their issuance passports, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Tuesday.

"I am glad to announce that the Ministry of External Affairs has initiated steps to issue e-passports or biometric passports," he said after inauguarting the first passport office of Uttarakhand here in presence of Chief Minister B C Khanduri.

The new e-passport will carry the prescribed biological features and facial imprints of a holder and will be at par with international civil aviation standards, he said.

In the first phase, such e-pasports will be issued in official and diplomatic categories. By next year, they will be issued in the ordinary passport category as well.