50th Passport Seva Kendra inaugurated, 27 more to open

Applying for a passport will be easier and it will take not more than 45 minutes to complete all the formalities, External Affairs Minster S M Krishna reaffirmed on Thursday while inaugurating 50th Passport Seva Kendra, equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, at Herald House near ITO in central Delhi. 

“The swanky Passport Seva Kendra will provide services on par with best practices worldwide. This is an important milestone. The setting up of Passport Seva Kendras is part of government’s commitment to deliver passport services to the citizens in an efficient way,” said Krishna.

Krishna said two-and-half-years ago when the proposal to start such offices came to the fore, ‘there were initial hiccups but those were overcome’. Due to structural reforms taken by the government, we are now able provide passport services timely and effectively, he said. 

Krishna also thanked Prime Minster Manmohan Singh for supporting him in his flagship programme. He said the government would set up smaller PSK in north-east states to facilitate prompt services.

Minister of state for external affairs Preneet Kaur, who was also present on the occasion, said, “A total of 77 Passport Seva Kendras was proposed under the project and in last two years, 50 such offices have been functional and the remaining 27 are expected soon. Since inception of the project, nearly 15 lakh applications have been processed”.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Congress leader Motilal Vohra, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai and Tata Consultancy Services CEO and managing director N Chandrasekaran were among the dignitaries present on the occasion.

Dikshit said, “Not only this is the best example of e-governance, it is one of the wonderful Passport Seva Kendra we ever got”.  

The new PSK, one of the largest in the country, set up in collaboration with TCS will be able to process nearly 1,000 applications per day.

One can file online application and upload the required documents following which an appointment will be given by the centre for verification of the documents. The applicant will also have the option of choosing time slot in a day.

The new office will be the third in Delhi and National Capital Region. Two other centres are already operational under the jurisdiction of Regional Passport Office, Delhi at Shalimar Place and Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon. The fourth will open shortly at the premises of RPO, Bhikaji Cama Place for bolstering facilities for passport-related services.