Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah on Saturday inaugurated the ‘Fast Track Immigration – Trusted Traveller Programme’ at Terminal-3 of Indira Gandhi International Airport for the benefit of Indian citizens and OCI cardholders.

The Home Minister said that the Fast Track Immigration – Trusted Traveller Programme (FTI- TTP) is a visionary initiative of the Government, which has been thoughtfully designed for the benefit of Indian citizens and OCI cardholders.

The initiative will be of greater facility for the Indian Nationals and OCI passengers coming from other countries, he said. The launch of this programme is one of the key agendas set for Viksit Bharat @2047 and reflects the Modi Government’s commitment to enhance travel convenience and efficiency for all.

Mr Shah said that this facility will be available free of cost for all passengers and is designed for faster, smoother and safer immigration clearance for international travellers. The programme will run on e-gates or automated border gates which will minimise human intervention in the immigration clearance process.

The programme will be implemented in two phases. In the first phase, Indian citizens and OCI cardholders will be covered and in the second phase, foreign travellers will be covered.

The objective of this programme is to make international travel easy and secured by developing world-class immigration facilities through an accelerated immigration pathway for international travellers screened through automated gates (e-Gates).

The FTI-TTP will be implemented through an online portal and Bureau of Immigration will be the nodal agency for fast track immigration of various categories of travellers under this programme. To enroll in the scheme, the applicant has to register online on the portal with her/his details and required documents.

After necessary verification, a White List of ‘Trusted Travellers’ will be generated and fed for implementation through e-Gates. Biometrics of the ‘Trusted Traveller’ passing through e-Gates will be captured at the FRRO office or at the time of passage of the registered traveller through the airport.

The TTP registration will be valid till the validity of the passport or 05 years whichever is earlier and will be renewed thereafter. Under the process, as soon as the ‘registered passenger’ reaches the e-gates, he/she will scan his/her boarding pass issued by the airlines at the e-gates to get the details of his/her flight.

The passport will also be scanned and biometric of the passenger will be authenticated at the e-gates. Once the genuine identity of the passenger is established and biometric authentication is done, the e-gate will open automatically and immigration clearance will be deemed to have been granted.

The FTI-TTP will be launched at 21 major airports in the country. In the first phase, along with Delhi Airport, it will be launched at seven major airports — Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi and Ahmedabad.