Union Home Minister Amit Shah today inaugurated the Fast Track Immigration-Trusted Traveller Program in Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram, Trichy, Calicut, and Amritsar airports through video conferencing. The program aims to facilitate international mobility with faster, smoother and secure immigration clearance. It will provide more facilities for the Indian Nationals and Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) passengers coming from other countries. The program will run on e-gates or automated border gates, which will minimise human intervention in the immigration clearance process.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Shah highlighted that the Fast Track Immigration program is a trusted traveller program, which makes immigration simpler, faster and hassle-free. He said that this will also promote both convenience and national security. Mr Shah informed that the program was launched in Delhi last year, and till now, this facility has been started at 13 airports across the country. He added that so far, three lakh passengers have registered on this portal.
The Minister informed that in the last eleven years, there has been a huge increase in international passenger traffic. He said that in 2014, the number of Indian passengers going abroad was three crore 54 lakhs, which has increased to around 73 per cent to six crore 12 lakhs. Mr Shah said that the number of foreign passengers who used to come to India was one crore 53 lakhs in 2014, which has now increased to around two crore passengers in 2024.
