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’Passport applicant turnaround time has reduced to 45 minutes’

The average turnaround time of an applicant at all the four Passport Seva Kendras (PSK) in the state has been reduced to 45 minutes. 

“It was about 120 minutes last year and we have brought it down to 45 minutes this year. There are people who left the Kendras in around 15 minutes. We have improved our processing techniques and efficiency,” P S Karthigeyan, Regional Passport Officer (RPO), Bengaluru said on Wednesday. 

He termed it as one of the biggest achievements in the last one year. Karthigeyan, who was speaking at a programme hosted by the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI, said there was a good response on the five-day window period where the passport applicant has a flexibility to fix an appointment to visit the PSKs. 

Mobile app 

All those who apply for passport need not worry about delay in police verification at least in Bengaluru. 

Karthigeyan said the police verification has gone online in the city and all the 108 police stations are equipped with a tablet-based application which is directly connected to the passport officer. “With this, the average time taken for police verification is 12 days. This could be further reduced to three to four days,” he said.

Karthigeyan said Bengaluru passport office has launched attest and apostille (authenticating origin of public documents by Ministry of External Affairs) services, which is one of the five passport offices in the country. “Those people who want to authenticate their documents (personal, educational and commercial) to present it to the foreign authority need not go elsewhere. The facility is available in our office”, he said asking people to visit: www.gov.in/apostille.htm for details. 

“We will upgrade Kalaburagi Passport Seva Kendra into a full-fledged passport processing centre in a month,” Karthigeyan said. 

There is a proposal to introduce passport processing facility in the post office in future to cater to increasing demand. 

“This year, we have issued nearly two lakh passports without police verification, out of the 5.72 lakh passports issued between January and November this year. This is because a large chunk of people in Bengaluru apply for the renewal of the passport and some for minors,”Karthigeyan said.