Soon, passports will be issued in Kalaburagi, too

 The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has decided to upgrade the Passport Application Processing Centre (PAPC) in Kalaburagi into a full-fledged Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) in order to reduce the workload on the Regional Passport Office in Bengaluru and to ensure transparency in administration.

With the conversion of the Kalaburagi PAPC into a passport seva kendra, the number of PSKs in Karnataka will go up to five. Bengaluru has two PSKs (Lalbagh Road and Marathahalli) and Hubballi and Mangaluru have one each.

“The MEA has taken up a project to upgrade a few PAPCs across the country, including the Kalaburagi PAPC. A full-fledged PSK will launch its operations in Kalaburagi in a few months,” Regional Passport Officer (RPO) Bengaluru, P S Karthigeyan, told Deccan Herald. The MEA is in the process of procuring the required technical equipment for the Kalaburagi PAPC and the online uplink work is in progress. The full-fledged PSK will be in place once the ongoing works are completed, he said.

“Presently, the Kalaburagi PAPC serves as a virtual PSK. All front operations to generate a passport, such as submission of applications, digitisation of files, taking of pictures and biometrics and verification of documents, have been completed. The last stage of granting of passports is done by the Regional Passport Office in Bengaluru. This will happen in Kalaburagi once the PSK begins its operations,” he said.

The PAPC in Kalaburagi was commissioned in 2015 to help passport seekers in the region. It has handled over 25,000 applications so far. It receives about 100 applications a day. The facility will function five days a week and will be dependent on the RPO in Bengaluru for crucial issues, he said.

“The applications, which are not decided by the Kalaburagi PSK due to legal and criminal issues, will be forwarded to the Bengaluru office for redress. These will be very complicated, sensitive and serious issues and take much time before a passport is granted. The RPO needs to refer these applications to other agencies for an opinion,” Karthigeyan said.

 P S Karthigeyan,  RPO, Bengaluru: The MEA has taken up a project to upgrade a few PAPCs across the country, including the Kalaburagi PAPC.
A full-fledged PSK will launch its operations in Kalaburagi in a few months.