Hand-written passports became invalid for travelling abroad from today

New Delhi: Hand-written passports of Indian citizens are no longer valid from Wednesday as per government's directive.[caption id="attachment_2381436" align="alignleft" width="380"] Image courtesy- passport.gov.in[/caption]The government had asked those having hand-written passports to get machine-readable ones having bar codes by November 24.The government had decided to discontinue hand-written passports in accordance with recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to incorporate biometric data in the machine readable travel documents.Hand-written passports became invalid for travelling abroad from today, said a government official.The machine readable passports have greater protection against fraudulent practises and tampering.The hand-written passports were issued prior to 2001.PTI