Handwritten passports\\\' era ends Nov 24

All the passport users, both at home and abroad, have been requested to swap their handwritten passports with the new machine readable ones by November 24. The deadline was fixed at an inter-ministerial meeting, held at the Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry with its Minister Rashed Khan Menon in the chair. The time for the existing handwritten passports will expire on November 24, according to the directives of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), and the government has also made it mandatory for the users to have machine readable passports (MRPs) after the time. At the meeting, it was decided that the passport holders would not be able to travel abroad without using MRPs after November 24, said a handout.     — UNB