New Delhi, Nov 25 (PTI) : Hand-written Indian passports are no longer valid from today as per government's directive.
The government had asked those having hand-written passports to get machine-readable ones having bar codes by 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, PTI reported.
Hand-written passports became invalid for travelling abroad from today, 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.