Patna, June 21: The biometric identity cards would soon be a reality. The rural development department, which has been entrusted with the task of making them for every Bihar resident, has finalised the technical details for inviting bids from private agencies to carryout the Herculean task.

“These details would be sent for cabinet approval soon. After its approval, tenders would be floated for starting the work,” a source in the rural development department told The Telegraph.

According to the details worked out by the department, no single bidder would be given the responsibility of making these cards in more than four districts. Those opting to take up this service would have to collect information visiting the households so that residents do not have to bother about getting registered for collecting the cards.

“The selected agencies would collect information using the Aadhaar format so that the information required for generating the Aadhaar number could also be generated simultaneously and sent to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI),” the source said.

UIDAI has made different agencies as registrars, which on behalf of the authority, collect information from people and send it to the authority. In case of Bihar, the rural development department has been made as one of the agencies for collecting this information.

The source said the smart cards (read biometric identity cards) would be very useful for residents. Apart from storing their Aadhaar number details, the chip in the card would have enough storage space in which other details could be uploaded.

“It can be anything like details of various social security pensions a particular category of residents are entitled to,” he added.

Clearing the air on chances of duplication of work as a set of Bihar residents, who have opted for taking benefit of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), have been issued biometric cards (e-Shakti), the source said: “Those who have been issued e-Shakti cards, necessary changes would be made in them so that the same could be used as ID card.”

Till date, around seven lakh e-Shakti cards have been issued to MNREGS beneficiaries in Bihar.

The source also said the agency implementing the e-Shakti project had collected basic information about MNREGS beneficiaries in four districts — Patna, Nalanda, Vaishali and Muzaffarpur. When the survey work for the identity card project would be launched, the information collected earlier would help in speedy collection of data in those districts.

The state government is keen to deliver the identity cards to all its 10-crore odd residents by the end of 2013. To ensure the work is carried out in the stipulated time, a dedicated cell would be set up in the rural development department. It would keep tabs on the day-to-day progress of the work.