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New Delhi: Hand-written passports of Indian citizens are no longer valid from Wednesday as per government’s directive. The government had asked those having hand-written passports to get machine-readable ones having bar codes by 24 November.
The government had decided to discontinue hand-written passports in accordance with recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to incorporate biometric data in the machine readable travel documents.
Hand-written passports became invalid for travelling abroad from Wednesday, said a government official. The machine readable passports have greater protection against fraudulent practices and tampering. The hand-written passports were issued prior to 2001.
