The Department of Immigration and Emigration has reportedly decided to award a Rs. 5.5 billion tender to customise future stocks of Sri Lanka’s e-passports.
Although the name of the successful bidder has not been officially announced, sources indicate that the contract has been awarded to Thales DIS Finland OY, in partnership with its local associate, Just In Time Technologies (Pvt) Ltd.
The procurement appeals process is scheduled to begin next week, during which unsuccessful bidders are expected to challenge the award.
Under the tender conditions, the selected bidder must implement a two-key encryption solution that will enable Sri Lanka’s unique Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for passports to be registered with the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Public Key Directory (PKD), allowing access by immigration authorities worldwide.
An earlier procurement for e-passport books was also won by the Thales–JIT joint venture. However, a significant portion of that order will continue to be issued as standard machine-readable passports.
Authorities had previously opted to procure machine-readable passports to address a shortage caused by delays in the e-passport tender. The personalization (PKI-PKD) solution was advertised as a separate procurement process.
Meanwhile, the Department of Registration of Persons has extended, for the third time, the deadline for submitting bids to procure five million pre-printed polycarbonate National Identity Cards under the government’s electronic identity card project.
Officials clarified that the electronic identity card project is separate from the proposed digital identity card project funded by the Indian government. Procurement for the modular open-source identity card platform developed by India is currently underway.
The Department of Registration of Persons continues to issue polycarbonate identity cards featuring a 12-digit number beginning with the holder’s year of birth.
Initially, a tender for 15 million polycarbonate cards was advertised in September 2025. After revising the requirement to five million cards, the tender was re-advertised the following month and again in December, with the closing date now set for January 22, 2026.
