Get passport appointments one-and-a-half days ahead

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, Regional Passport Officer (RPO), K J Srinivasa said he had received complaints from people about the existing system of opening appointments at 8 am the previous day.

“People who have to go to internet cafes to secure appointments complained that the daily appointment quota would be filled up by the time the internet cafes opened. Tatkal appointments, especially, would be filled up immediately and it was causing hardship to people who could not access a computer at 8 am, so we have decided to extend the timings,” he said.

From September 17, appointments will be released at 6 pm, or one and a half days before the scheduled date.

“For example, appointments for Monday, September 19 will be open from 6 pm on September 17 and will be available till the appointments are fully exhausted,” Srinivasa said.

Four PSKs

The appointments are spread across the four Passport Seva Kendras (PSK) on Lalbagh Road and Marathahalli in Bangalore and in Hubli and Mangalore.

Applicants can obtain appointments from Saturday to Thursday for Monday to
Friday.

Lalbagh Kendra

Srinivasa said people seemed to prefer the Lalbagh Kendra in Bangalore and these appointments (over 1,100 a day) were filling up immediately, while the Marathahalli centre with over 725 appointments was not getting filled up.

“Anyone who is unable to get an appointment at Lalbagh can try Marathahalli centre, as the appointments here get filled slowly,” he said. The RPO has also requested people to come to the Passport Seva Kendras with all the relevant documents and a printout of the ARN number.

However, pending police verifications still pose a problem to the Passport Office, with over 80,000 applications yet to be received from police in the State. In Bangalore alone, 49,080 applications are pending with the police. Out of this, 38,898 have been pending for more than 21 days.

“We have taken the issue up with the police. We have not received any answer from them so far,” the RPO commented.