Rs 1,011 cr project to keep tab on foreigners entering India

NEW DELHI: Aimed to keep a tab on foreigners with dubious identity entering into the country, the government has launched a more than Rs 1,000 crore project connecting Indian missions abroad to obtain and track information on such travellers on a real-time basis.

Home Minister P Chidambaram said the IVFoRT programme was intended to connect the large majority of missions abroad, the central foreigners bureau, the immigration points and Foreigner Regional Registration Offices (FRROs).

"All of them are linked so that the entire system of issuing visa and registering foreigners is online and networked.

"At this moment we do not have that kind of system. That is the goal of the programme. The Rs 1,011-crore mission mode project is called Immigration, Visa and Foreigners' Registration and Tracking (IVFoRT)," he told reporters here.

The project continues to make good progress. The Project Management Group has been set up, Visa application forms standardised, online visa application system and electronic transfer of messages operationalised for Indian High Commission in Islamabad and connectivity with immigration headquarters for security agencies and Indian High Commission in Dhaka established, he said.

After setting up of the new system, the Home Ministry will run a check on the applicant and revert to the Indian High Commission in a month's time and communicate the same to the concerned mission.

The project had been expeditiously mooted in the aftermath of the David Headley case, where the Pakistani-American LeT operative travelled across India during multiple visits and conducted reconnaissance of future terror targets in the country while remaining undetected.