'ePassport to be launched on 28 Nov'

Bangladesh will formally introduce ePassport on 28 November next, said foreign minister AK Abdul Momen. 

While briefing reporters at his office on his recent Europe tour, the foreign minister said the relevant authorities have confirmed the date, reports UNB.

Momen said the difficulties of Bangladeshi expatriates in renewing their passports will be over as such e-passport will have a validity period of 10 years.

An ePassport is a biometric passport which includes a chip, which can be used at the automated ePassport gates instead of having passport.

The chip holds the same information that is printed on the passport's data page: the holder's name, date of birth, and other biographic information. In some countries, including Germany, ePassports include two fingerprints as well.

The Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP) was supposed to begin distribution of digital passports, also known as ePassports, from July last to ease immigration.

Bangladesh and Germany signed an agreement on 19 July last year following Dhaka's decision to issue electronic passports alongside the machine readable ones.

Implementation of the project - Introduction of ePassport and Automated Border Control Management in Bangladesh - started in July 2018.