Dhaka: Production of smart national identity cards with strong security features would be started by June.

The Election Commission (EC) has decided to distribute 90 million smart cards under Identification System for Enhanced Access to Services (IDEA) Project that aims to establish a secure and reliable national identification (NID) system in Bangladesh for efficient, inclusive and transparent service delivery.

The World Bank is providing $195 million for the project, and an agreement was signed with EC in January this year to produce the smart NID cards, said a World Bank press release today.

The Rules and Regulations to implement the National Identify Registration Act, 2010 have been gazetted.

Soon all citizens would be included in the NID database. Biometric data would be enhanced to make the NID system more comprehensive and robust.

As soon as the smart NID cards are available, more agencies in both public and private sectors would be able to access off-line services for NID verification purposes.

Meanwhile, the EC has signed MoUs with the National Board of Revenue, the Bangladesh Bank and the Passports and Immigration Authority, who would be able to utilize the NID database for verification purposes. The Ministry of Social Welfare and the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics are accessing the NID database on a pilot basis.

A stakeholder consultation meeting was organized in early February 2015 to brief about the status of the NID system, the different ID verification services available, and seek feedback on system roll-out.