The quick pa-ssport dispatch mechanism which the Regional Passport Office (RPO) promised while tying up with the BangaloreOne Centres se-ems to have come a cropper as a passport applicant was yet to get his passport even after 108 days.

Vishwas Chandra M S (application no B14085307) who had applied for a passport at the BangaloreOne Centre in Vijayanagar on March 8 earlier this year, is yet to receive his passport despite obtaining police clearance.

The RPO normally takes 45 days to dispatch a passport. In this applicant’s case, it has delayed for more than 108 days. When the applicant approached the RPO a few days back, he was told that the delay was due to shortage of passport booklets.

When the passport application status was checked on Tuesday on the Regional Passport Office  website, it stated “Your police verification report has been received by us and your file is in line for further processing.”

“We were further advised to apply through tatkal scheme for a quick dispatch,“ the applicant’s father, M C Patil told Deccan Herald.

The Regional Passport Office  charges Rs 1,000 for a fresh passport and Rs 1,500 for a passport applied under tatkal scheme.

“When there is a shortage of booklets how come they have stocks for those to be dispatched on tatkal scheme?” Mr Patil asked.

When Deccan Herald contacted the RPO officials on Tuesday, they denied that there was no shortage of booklets and the passport of the said applicant had been granted, which would be further processed and delivered shortly.

“The reason for delay can be attributed to the shifting of RPO from Brunton Road to Koramangala and during relocation, a few files may have got mixed up. Besides, there is a shortage of staff too,” an official at the Regional Passport Office  said.