EC mulls smart NID cards by end this year

The Election Commission has been considering to start providing the smart national identity (NID) cards to the country’s citizens by the end of this year. The Commission thinks it will be able to provide the high security featured smart NID cards after completing the tender process in October this year. Instead of the present normal laminated NID cards for the voters, the EC has decided to provide the sustainable smart NID card to all citizens of the country at free of cost for the first time. The smart looking card will have multi-purpose use as it will be machine readable. Now a voter is given normal laminated NID card inscribed with the name of a voter, names of parents, date of birth, ID number and voter’s address. The commission in 2011 took a plan to provide the smart card under its Identification System for Enhancing Access to Services (IDEA) Project, which was jointly sponsored by the World Bank and the government of Bangladesh, according to UNB.