Nepal seeks India's nod for NID in cross-border travel

Kathmandu: Nepal has formally requested India to recognise its National Identity Card (NID) as a valid travel document for cross-border travel, aiming to strengthen identity verification and security while facilitating the movement of people between the two countries, a senior immigration official said.

The NID is similar to India's Aadhaar card and contains biometric information, including fingerprints, facial images and iris scans. The Nepali government has made the NID mandatory for accessing several public services, including passport applications, land registration, opening bank accounts and other government services, as it seeks to gradually replace the traditional citizenship certificate with digitally readable identity cards.

Nepal also wants India to recognise the NID as a valid document for the cross-border movement of Nepali citizens, as India currently recognises Nepal's passport and citizenship certificate as official identity documents.