External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar has said that ePassports will be rolled out in the country in the next six months. Answering questions in the Lok Sabha on Friday, he said the process of making ePassports is being experimented now in a test-bed to ensure that they are safe in all respects. He said the chip-based passports will make the process of international travel by Indians a smooth affair. He added that the ePassports will be a combination of paper and the embedded Radio Frequency Identification chips, with the antenna incorporated as an inlay in the back cover.<br />''<br />'' He informed that Letter of Intent has been given for the supply of 4.5 crore chips and antennae in the first phase to begin with issuing ePassports. He pointed out that the whole world is moving towards issuing ePassports and India does not lag behind. The National informatics Centre (NIC) has been entrusted with the technical responsibilities and the production of the ePassports will be made by the India Security Press at Nasik.<br />'' <br />''On the question of skimming the personal data contained in the chip-based passports, Dr Jaishankar said the vulnerability has been taken into cognizance and all preventive efforts will be made to make the travel document free from such threats with multiple layers of security. Once the process is streamlined, he said the speed of issuing the modern passports will be augmented.<br />''<br />