Govt moves to issue e-passports at last

The Awami League government, ending its indecision on how to upgrade passports, has now decided to introduce electronic passport, or e-passport, from the next year in compliance with international requirements for ‘transparent’ identity of Bangladesh citizens.
The e-passport project involving an estimated Tk 283 crore will be implemented by the Bangladesh army with logistics support from foreign companies, said the home affairs ministry officials. The cost is expected to exceed the current estimate, they said.
It will be mandatory for Bangladeshi citizens to take electronic passport by 2014, to be introduced in line with the rules of the International Civil Aviation Organisation to digitally connect all member countries to end passport forgery.
The army and the immigration and passport department will sign a memorandum of understanding in two months for the implementation of the project, the immigration and passport director general Abdur Rob Hawlader, told New Age on Friday. ‘The government will implement the project from its own resources,’ he said.
A high-level meeting presided over by the home secretary on Wednesday decided to directly issue e-passport from April 2010 without introducing machine-readable passports, which was planned by the previous Awami League government in 1998. The BNP-led alliance government went ahead with the project involving Tk 750 crore, but could not implement it because of flaws in the project design.
The army-controlled interim government during its two years’ tenure carried out forward some activities to commission the machine readable passport project, but it later decided to leave the issue for the political government.
The Awami League-led government also initially preferred the implementation of the same project, but finally decided to go for e-passport to meet international obligations.
The government, after assuming office on January 6, decided to issue machine readable passports from July and then moved to issue e-passports in phases.
The government was supposed to complete the issuance of approximately 1.85 crore machine readable passports by 2014, the year when it will be mandatory to introduce e-passports in line with the International Civil Aviation Organisation rule.
Sources in the home ministry, however, said a foreign company would be assigned to prepare the e-passports on a pilot basis under the supervision of the army. Six to seven upazilas will be covered in the first phase.
The government is now planning to issue about 10 lakh e-passports in eight to nine months after beginning the implementation of the project in July, Rob said.
The executive committee of the National Economic Council on March 19 appro-ved a Tk 283-crore project for machine readable passports and machine-readable visas.
Experts, however, feel the budget would be insufficient for the implementation of the e-passport project. At least $50 million or Tk 350 crore will be required to complete the project, they said.

Courtesy of NewAgebd