ePassport personalisation: Bid deadline extended again
- CNL Reporter
- July 21, 2025
- News
- ePassport
- 0 Comments
The Department of Immigration and Emigration (DIE) has granted a second extension to bidders for its tender to personalise ePassports.
This is not due to a lack of interest but rather because of an overwhelming number of parties vying for the Rs. 5.5 billion contract, official sources said.
The successful bidder must implement a two-key encryption solution that will allow the Sri Lankan passport’s unique public key infrastructure (PKI) to be lodged with the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) public key directory (PKD) for access by immigration authorities worldwide.
Bids will now close on July 30. The first deadline of June 23 was extended to July 23. A pre-bid meeting was held at which a large number of questions from prospective bidders were answered.
However, the tender continued to attract queries. A few bid conditions have changed, and the date for submissions was delayed twice. The latest set of clarifications by the DIE runs into 15 pages.
