India plans to start issuing e-passports to its nationals by 2016, a top official has been quoted as saying.

The government is in the process of tendering for the new passports and orders in this regard have been issued, said Muktesh K Pardeshi, chief passport officer, Ministry of External Affairs.

Also known as Biometric or digital passports, these new passports will have a microprocessor chip embedded in it.

India, which attained the distinction of being the third largest passport issuing country after China and US last year by processing one crore applications, is aiming at 20 per cent growth this year, he said.