After a successful pilot run in Mysuru, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) will launch Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSK) in Belagavi, Davangere, Hassan and Kalaburagi by the end of March.
To ensure wider coverage and ease of access, the Department of Posts and MEA will use head post Offices in these cities to provide passport-related services.
The Bengaluru Regional Passport Office (RPO) will launch the POPSKs in temporary facilities like vans, till the post office premises are readied. Postal staff will be trained to deliver the services and will be supported by RPO officials.
On January 25, a trial POPSK was launched in Metagalli Post Office in Mysuru, catering to Mysuru and Chamrajnagar districts. The centre receives 130 applicants a day at present.
Regional Passport Officer P S Karthigeyan said, “The verification and granting of passports will be completed at the POPSKs itself. In a few cases, if any problems arise, they will be escalated to the Bengaluru RPO.” Besides the POPSK, the state has four Passport Seva Kendras run on a PPP-basis (public-private partnership) with Tata Consultancy Services. By the end of the year, Bengaluru RPO expects to issue seven lakh passports.
Verification report
Karthigeyan said that since the introduction of mPassport Police app in May 2016, two lakh paperless police verification reports (PVR) have been carried out in Bengaluru. “The average PVR time in the city has reduced to 10 days, as against 20-25 days previously. This has also helped reduce the average PV time for the entire state from 26 days to 17 days,” a release issued by RPO said. Police stations which take the least time to complete the PVRs are Shankarapuram (three days), Madiwala (four days), Adugodi (four days) and Vijayanagar (four days).
