Launching the ‘fast track immigration – trusted traveller program’ (FTI-TTP) — which enables faster immigration of pre-verified flyers through automated e-gates — at five more international airports in the country, home minister Amit Shah on Thursday suggested that its coverage be maximised by enabling resident Indians and overseas citizens of India (OCI) to sign up for FTI-TTP at the state of issuing of passports or OCI cards itself.With the inclusion of Lucknow, Amritsar, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirappalli and Kozhikode international airports, the total number of airports covered under the program has risen to 13. First launched at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here in June 2022, the program had added seven more airports — covering Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi and Ahmedabad — in January this year. Shah said the facility will be available at the upcoming Navi Mumbai and Jewar airports as well. Addressing the FTI-TTP inauguration event at five airports through video-conference, Shah said around 3 lakh persons had registered under the program and over 2.6 lakh travellers, both inbound and outbound, had availed of it, enabling them to clear immigration in as little as 30 seconds and with no long queues or manual checks. “The next phase of the effort to enhance passenger convenience by integrating Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji’s vision of ‘speed, scale, and scope’ into the FTI-TTP is starting from today,” he said, adding that the program introduces foreign travellers to the positive changes taking place in India. Drawing attention to the 60% increase in international passenger traffic over the past 11 years of Modi govt — from a little over 5 crore in 2014 to 8.1 crore in 2024 — Shah said the figure of 2.6 lakh who have availed of the FTI-TTP facility is too small, leaving tremendous scope to maximise its coverage. Stating that everyone who has availed of the program has voiced appreciation, the home minister said “our goal should be to ensure that every Indian citizen and every OCI cardholder takes advantage of this facility”.“To achieve this, I request that when issuing passports and OCI cards, we can also conduct this registration (under FTI-TTP), so that people don’t have to come twice for fingerprinting or document verification. Whenever they travel, they can simply use their passport. I think we must further explore the technological possibilities to maximize the number of people who can take advantage of this program,” he added.
