New Delhi: In a major step to check misuse of passports, government will next month introduce E-passports that will carry biometric information in a chip.

The E-passports will initially be introduced for the category of diplomats and officials, sources said.

Common people can get such passports within 11 months, the sources said, citing the government order.

The decision to issue such passports comes after days of trials by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and IIT (Kanpur), which had been tasked by the government to work on the project.

At present, a passport contains facial imprint but the special passport will carry a chip that will have entire personal information, including finger-prints, of the person carrying it.

"It will make misuse of passports, including impersonation and cloning, next to impossible," a source said.

The E-passports will also help the authorities keep track of the movement of the persons having such documents, the sources said.

During the trials, the E-passport was tested in the US and proved better than the American documents, surprising the authorities there.

Source : PTI