E-passport from next year

The government is going to introduce e-passport, instead of Machine Readable Passport (MRPs) from January 2017. This is likely to help people get the travel document without any hassle. At a high-level meeting at the home ministry, it was decided to introduce the e-passport by appointing a passport-making firm under the build-own–operate–transfer (BOOT) system, sources in the ministry and the Department of Immigration and Passport said. Already seven/eight foreign companies have shown interest in providing the e-passport booklet under the BOOT system, the sources added. The director general of the Department of Immigration and Passport, Brigadier General (Retd) Md Masud Rezwan, told The Independent that the authorities are yet to take a decision on whether e-passports would be made by appointing a company under the BOOT system or with government funds. “We will prepare a report how to provide the e-passport through a private company under the BOOT system or by ourselves and the report would be placed at the meeting. We are hoping that the e-passport will be introduced by January 2017,” he said. Sources in the Department of Immigration and Passport said: “It will be better if the authorities decide to provide the e-passport through a private company under the BOOT system. In that case, no government funds would  be required.”
The e-passport will be a biometric passport containing detailed features of the holder, the sources added. It will have a microchip containing biometric information and that in the existing printed passport’s data page – the holder’s name, date of birth and other biographic information. According to the sources, an e-passport will probably cost Tk. 12,000 and would have a 10-year duration. At least 70 countries either have introduced or are in the process of introducing e-passports. The government is going to increase the validity of an MRP from five years to 10 and raise the fees to Tk. 5,500 from Tk. 3,000 for normal delivery and Tk. 11,000 from Tk. 6,000 for urgently sought ones. For this, the Bangladesh Passport Rules 1974 would be amended.

E-passport from next year

The government is going to introduce e-passport, instead of Machine Readable Passport (MRPs) from January 2017. This is likely to help people get the travel document without any hassle. At a high-level meeting at the home ministry, it was decided to introduce the e-passport by appointing a passport-making firm under the build-ownoperatetransfer (BOOT) system, sources in the ministry and the Department of Immigration and Passport said. Already seven/eight foreign companies have shown interest in providing the e-passport booklet under the BOOT system, the sources added. The director general of the Department of Immigration and Passport, Brigadier General (Retd) Md Masud Rezwan, told The Independent that the authorities are yet to take a decision on whether e-passports would be made by appointing a company under the BOOT system or with government funds. We will prepare a report how to provide the e-passport through a private company under the BOOT system or by ourselves and the report would be placed at the meeting. We are hoping that the e-passport will be introduced by January 2017, he said. Sources in the Department of Immigration and Passport said: It will be better if the authorities decide to provide the e-passport through a private company under the BOOT system. In that case, no government funds would be required. The e-passport will be a biometric passport containing detailed features of the holder, the sources added. It will have a microchip containing biometric information and that in the existing printed passports data page the holders name, date of birth and other biographic information. According to the sources, an e-passport will probably cost Tk. 12,000 and would have a 10-year duration. At least 70 countries either have introduced or are in the process of introducing e-passports. The government is going to increase the validity of an MRP from five years to 10 and raise the fees to Tk. 5,500 from Tk. 3,000 for normal delivery and Tk. 11,000 from Tk. 6,000 for urgently sought ones. For this, the Bangladesh Passport Rules 1974 would be amended.