CCEA approves Rs1,011-crore visa and immigrant tracking project
13 May 2010
The cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) today approved a Rs1,011 crore project for modernisation and upgradation of immigration services in the country.
Implementation of the 'Immigration, Visa and Foreigner's Registration & Tracking' (IVFRT) is one of the Mission Mode Projects (MMP) to be undertaken by the ministry of home affairs under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP).
Of the total cost of around Rs1,011 crore, Rs132 crore is proposed to be spent during April 2010-June 2011 (Phase-I) and the remaining amount of Rs879 crore is earmarked for Phase-II of the project implementation (July 2011-September 2014).
The core objective of the project is to develop and implement a secure and integrated service delivery framework that facilitates legitimate travellers while strengthening security.
The National Institute for Smart Government (NSIG) was selected and tasked with the responsibility for generating a comprehensive e-governance solution for the immigration, visa issuance and foreigners' registration and tracking functions, and to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) for the same.
The DPR has been finalised by NSIG in consultation with the ministry of home affairs, ministry of external affairs, department of information technology, Bureau of Immigration and the National Informatics Center (NIC). The DPR contains details on the scope of the MMP, solution design, manpower requirements, implementation phasing strategy, and the cost estimates for the project.
An elaborate list of services (9 core services and 37 services in total) has been included in the DPR for streamlining and integrating visa, immigration, and foreigners registration and tracking process. The services identified for inclusion are drawn with a focus on security, facilitation and enablement.
This mission has global outreach since the scope of the project includes 169 missions, 78 ICPs (immigration check posts), 7 FRROs (foreigners regional registration offices), and FROs (foreigners registration offices) in the state/ district headquarters. The implementation of this MMP is to be done in phases and the entire project is targeted to be completed by September 2014.