Issuance of MRPs starts today
Thursday, 13 May 2010
Monira Munni
Dhaka passport office will start issuing machine readable passport (MRP) for the first time in the country from today (Thursday) expanding to other regional and overseas offices gradually, officials said.
An MRP is a travel document where the personal data on the identity page is encoded in optical character recognition format.
"The first 21 applicants will receive their MRPs on May 13," Fazlul Haque, deputy director of the Department of Immigrations and Passports told the FE Wednesday.
The advantages of machine readable passports include faster processing of arriving and departing passengers by immigration officials and far more reliable than manually prepared passports, he said.
MRP's will be available in three colours -- green for all Bangladeshi nationals, blue for government officials and red for diplomats and their spouses.
The fee for regular passports will be Tk 3,000 and Tk 6,000 for urgent delivery. Initially it will take about 45 days to issue on MRP but gradually lesser time will be taken, Mr. Haque said.
Applicant's will have to be physically present at the time of submitting forms and the passport office authorities will take photographs and finger prints to process applications, he said.
The government had earlier stopped issuing emergency passports delivered in six hours due to unavailability of police report at such a short time, Mr Haque said.
"But we will continue issuing manually prepared emergency passports within 15 days for treatment and hajj purposes," he added.
Many countries began to issue machine readable travel documents since the early 1980s, an official of the passport office said.
Most passports worldwide are MRPs he said adding that "Though belated, finally we have been successful to start the internationally recognised system."
Dhaka passport office will start issuing machine readable passport (MRP) for the first time in the country from today (Thursday) expanding to other regional and overseas offices gradually, officials said.
An MRP is a travel document where the personal data on the identity page is encoded in optical character recognition format.
"The first 21 applicants will receive their MRPs on May 13," Fazlul Haque, deputy director of the Department of Immigrations and Passports told the FE Wednesday.
The advantages of machine readable passports include faster processing of arriving and departing passengers by immigration officials and far more reliable than manually prepared passports, he said.
MRP's will be available in three colours -- green for all Bangladeshi nationals, blue for government officials and red for diplomats and their spouses.
The fee for regular passports will be Tk 3,000 and Tk 6,000 for urgent delivery. Initially it will take about 45 days to issue on MRP but gradually lesser time will be taken, Mr. Haque said.
Applicant's will have to be physically present at the time of submitting forms and the passport office authorities will take photographs and finger prints to process applications, he said.
The government had earlier stopped issuing emergency passports delivered in six hours due to unavailability of police report at such a short time, Mr Haque said.
"But we will continue issuing manually prepared emergency passports within 15 days for treatment and hajj purposes," he added.
Many countries began to issue machine readable travel documents since the early 1980s, an official of the passport office said.
Most passports worldwide are MRPs he said adding that "Though belated, finally we have been successful to start the internationally recognised system."