Govt begins issuing e-passport

Kathmandu, Nov. 17

The Department of Passport has launched e-passport facility in Nepal since Wednesday.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr. Narayan Khadka handed over the first e-passport to centenarian and culture expert Satya Mohan Joshi. He also inaugurated e-passport Personalisation Centre at the Department’s office in Tripureshwor of Kathmandu.

Addressing a programme organised on the occasion, Minister Dr. Khadka expressed happiness over the timely execution of e-passport facility by the department and announced that the service would be expanded to the district administration offices in all 77 districts, 18 area administration offices and 40 missions abroad.

“Passport is an important document that reflects Nepal’s identity at the international level. Therefore, I would like to appreciate Department of Passport for the timely execution of safe, reliable and internationally recognised e-passport facility,” said FM Khadka.

Secretary of the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs (MoFA) Bharat Raj Paudyal made a comparison between Machine Readable Passport (MRP) and e-passport and said that until the country begins issuing the latter from all concerned agencies, the government would continue distributing the MRPs.

According to him, MRPs will be in fashion by at least 2031. “Therefore, people can use MRP for all required purposes by then,” he said.

Centenarian Joshi handed over his old passport to the department to keep it at the latter’s museum. Stating that the passport is an emblem of nationalism, he congratulated the department for its timely update.

Director General of the department, Dornath Aryal said that the e-passport is the most reliable, safe and qualitative, and most-used passport type internationally.

“E-passport has a data page made of polycarbonate and a chip containing biographic data. It also has various other security features,” he said. According to him, Live Enrollment System will be installed at all locations for the e-passport and people can make a pre-enrollment to book their time to apply for the e-passport.

The new service facilitates prompt printing of the passports which will save time and people can obtain it in the districts outside the Kathmandu Valley and in foreign countries within 15 days.

For some days, limited number of e-passports will be issued form the department and the service will be in full operation after three weeks. By December 2021, the facility will be expanded to the DAOs and Nepali missions abroad.

E-passport is interconnected with the National Identity Card and the thumb impressions and picture taken for the NIC would be the main basis for the authentication of the applicant. Aryal urged one and all to apply for the NIC mandatorily before applying for the e-passport.

Idemia Identity and Security Company of the United States of America has got the tender to print 2 million copies of passports.

The department is issuing MRP from its office in Narayanhiti Palace and e-passport from its new office at Tripureshwor.

 Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 18 November 2021.