The Hindu Business Line : Making immigration less tedious

THE days of endless waiting in a line at an international airport in India could soon become a thing of the past, if some of the recommendations of the high-power Naresh Chandra Committee are implemented by the Government.

The Committee has suggested that the Ministry of Home Affairs put in place a dedicated cadre of "courteous and computer-savvy" people for handling immigration at international airports. It has also suggested the adoption of a system whereby Indian nationals returning from abroad are not required to fill any disembarkation card and only have to show their passport at a separate counter at the airport.

"For arriving foreign nationals, many countries have introduced a system of stapling one portion of the disembarkation card to the passport which is taken away by the airlines at the time of the passenger departing and deposited with the immigration authorities. If this is done, there can be a separate counter for departing foreign nationals. Only departing Indian nationals will have to fill up the embarkation card and go through the elaborate immigration scrutiny meant to prevent any wanted person from fleeing the country," the report points out.

The Committee, which was headed by a former Cabinet Secretary, Mr Naresh Chandra, and included the HDFC Chairman, Mr Deepak Parekh, and a former Civil Aviation Secretary, Mr K. Roy Paul, was set up to draw a blueprint to make civil aviation more affordable.

The Committee recently submitted the second part of its report to the Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr Praful Patel.

With the country making great strides in information technology, the Committee has said that it should not be difficult to adopt new methods of issuing visas to ensure easy and fast completion of immigration formalities.

The report mentions that in countries like Australia, electronic visa is issued along with the ticket.

Besides, the Committee has also suggested that the country look at the option of introducing swipe cards, which could be either biometric or smart cards for Indian passengers.

The report points out that many countries including some in Asia provide swipe cards to those willing to pay for it so that they can go through a separate fast-track channel for speedier clearance.

The Committee has called for doing away with the practice of X-raying all registered and hand baggage of arriving passengers. The report argues that with the lowering of import duties and the liberalisation of the import control regime normal passengers have little incentive now to carry goods beyond the permissible limit.

"The only contraband to check are drugs and these cannot be detected by X-ray machines. Yet every arriving passenger is required to get the hand baggage X-rayed. This only enhances the risk of theft because the X-ray shows which baggage contains valuable items," the Committee has said.

The Committee has also suggested that all immigration counters be equipped with scanners to process passports so as to eliminate the time taken in visual scanning and keying-in of information.