DHAKA: More than one million Bangladesh expatriates in the UAE will have smart Machine Readable Passports (MRPs) by November 2015.

The project was launched in Dubai by the Ambassador of Bangladesh to the UAE Mohammad Imran, the Gulf News publishes this report early Saturday.

It said that the project was granted to a consortium of companies - Grand Technology Resource (GTR), IRIS and Computer Sources will complete the project in a record 18 month period.

“These passports will be issued under the guidelines of the International Civil Aviation (ICAO) and will have advance security features that will make it forgery and tamper proof,” said Mirwaiz Alizai, CEO of GTR at the launch of the project.

The passport which will cost Dh48 per booklet will have security features such as the Advanced Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) which help prevent counterfeiting of the document and also prevent forgery or any kind of tampering.

Any Bangladeshi national who applies for the new passport and surrenders his old one will get the smart passport within a week.

“Having this smart document which is ICAO approved with be a giant leap in terms of sustainability and technology for the passport issuing process and will also streamline the entire system,” said Datop Hamdan Bin Mohammad Hassan, CEO of IRIS.

The function was attended by important dignitaries of the Bangladesh embassy and consulate, the representative of the consortium and members of the UAE labor and immigration departments.

BDST: 1654 HRS, JUNE 28, 2014