Passengers travelling abroad will reportedly need an e-boarding pass on their smartphones for immigration clearance from September one, as immigration authorities plan to replace the physical boarding pass, officials said.The decision was taken after the Bureau of Immigration (BOI) under the ministry of home affairs (MHA) found that the physical stamping of boarding passes, required for immigration, was inconvenient for passengers.“The matter has been examined by the BOI and it has now been decided to do away with the mandatory requirement of physical boarding passes and the stamping of boarding passes at immigration counters at all international airports in the country”, according to officials who spoke to PTI.“Improper or incorrect” stamping also led to errors in reading boarding passes, prompting the decision to do away with this procedure, they added.However, while physical boarding passes will continue to be accepted, they will not be stamped by the immigration authorities from September 1.
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Security officials said international travellers were also no longer having their boarding passes stamped by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) during individual frisking. The passes were instead required to be produced only for clearance by immigration authorities. Notably, CISF had stopped stamping boarding passes for both domestic and international passengers several years ago.According to the officials, a pilot project is also underway to eliminate the stamping of immigration entry and exit for Indian passport holders. The process is expected to be implemented across Indian airports soon after the pilot exercise is complete.