Cruise tourists could soon travel to India without passports via E-landing cards

If the procedure gets approval, India may soon have its own ‘E-landing card’ which would act as a substitute of passports for all passengers travelling via sea route. The card would contain all the details of the passengers, possibly biometric data as well

Nikita Vashisht

In the wake of lingering ‘security threat’ across Indian ports, Ministry of Shipping and Ministry of Tourism are weighing various options, including launching its own E-landing card to beef up safety while simplifying the overall paper-work for cruise tourism.A high ranking official from the Shipping Ministry told Moneycontrol that the ministry has sent procedural recommendations to a task force to seek approval.

“The ministry has submitted these procedures. The task force, however, is yet to consider it,” he said.

He said that if the procedure gets approval, India may soon have its own ‘E-landing card’ which would act as a substitute of passports for all passengers travelling via sea route. The card would contain all the details, possibly biometric data as well, of the passengers coming to India via cruise which would be given to them after they step in India.“We are devising a plan where 96 hours (four days) prior to the cruise ship docking at the Indian ports, the officials of the origin country will have to provide us data of all the passengers on-board,” he said adding, “ Ministry of Home Affairs will verify their details. E-landing card will be issued to these passengers… It will be like a passport... The officials at the ports will only have to scan this card to verify the identity of the person”.

“So, the origin country will collect the biometric for us and send it to us. We will verify the data and let the person in”.

The concept of E-landing card draws inspiration from ‘International ship card’, used abroad for cruise ships. The card acts as an identity proof for all the sea-passengers. The card is radio frequency identification (RFID) enabled which stores details including passenger’s name, cabin number, name of the ship, dates of voyage etc.

The official said that cards will be generated in real-time at the port for all those who board the ship, mid-way. All the E-visas will be stamped only after details of the people have been verified.

The technology has been developed and is expected to see trial run from November 21, when cruise season will begin in India. Digital means of security check and minimal paper work, the official believes, will help handle close to 2,000 passengers within one to two hours.

The Ministry envisions to rationalise the entire verification and security procedure to “ease the tourists’ experience in India”.

E-landing card is being pushed by the ministry as it believes that “ports are sensitive areas” making “security a big concern”.

“The problem with us (India) is that, because of security reasons, the visa that a person carries cannot be trusted in totality. A person might forge his visa or passport since only the origin country can verify it, not us,” he reasoned.

“In India, security is the major concern… With Pakistan, China and Sri Lanka all at our head, we have to devise a method which is as good as feasible”.

Apart from storing details of passengers, the card will be allowed to be used as an identity card by them to allow “hassle free tourism”. The card will act as an ID card below central India.

“…When a foreigner comes to India and s/he goes to a city, who could be stopped by police in the absence of the passport. A (International) ship card will not be recognised by the police too. So they need a government authenticated identity proof…,” said the official.

“The E-landing card has been devised in such a manner that it would facilitate easy movement of passengers… We will also issue instructions to all the police departments to consider E-landing card legal within port-city limits”.

Separately, the ministry is contemplating other ways to keep security in check including positing of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) at all ‘sensitive’ places to prevent haywire movement of passengers. Furthermore, only authorised tour guides, bus or cab drivers will be allowed to pick and drop passengers from ports.

“We also have to devise plans related to positioning of CISF so that passenger don’t venture into ports where they are not authorised to move… We are also looking at mechanism where tour and taxi operators will be allowed to park their vehicles near ports for the whole season and would be given identity cards so that they can pick and drop passengers without any security breach… E-landing card will also be used by all these cab drivers to authenticate his/her passengers,” the official from the ministry said.

Ministry is also checking feasibility for adopting face matching technology in the long term, where a persons’ photograph sent by his/her origin country will be matched here through a face-scanner.

“We are still testing it... If this passes, we won’t need landing cards too,” he said.

The official said that steps being studied by the ministry are to ensure safety as well as time bound completion of formalities even though they realise the method could not be foolproof.

“This (E-landing card) too has concerns as we are dependent on foreign countries for documents of cruise passengers… Then there are man-power requirements... So, we are not asking for visa numbers from them (other countries) but we will ask for other relevant information,” he said adding, “We know 100 percent problems can’t be solved as you are dealing with mass people… but we are ready for issues”.

Union minister of shipping, Nitin Gadkari, said that cruise tourism could be a “game-changer” for India as it has a potential to generate revenues of Rs 35,000 crore while creating employment for over two lakh people.