Launch of e-passport pilot programme likely by year end

Mumbai: The central government may issue e-passports on a pilot basis from December 2007, according to government sources. The e-passports will have an integrated circuit chip embedded in their back cover, which will display all personal data of the passport holder, which was earlier contained on the 'photo page' of a regular passport.

The advantage of such a facility lies in the fact that information in the chip will be locked, and can be read only through swiping its information page across a special scanner. It will not be vulnerable to tampering, as is the case with conventional 'paper' passports.

This technology will very likely be embedded in the 40 million passports already in use.