National Capital Region to have four Passport Seva Kendras

The National Capital Region (NCR) will have four swanky state-of-the-art Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) by March next year which will help in reducing the hardships faced in filing applications for the document.

Two PSKs will be located in Delhi, including one in east Delhi, besides two in Ghaziabad and Gurgaon. These facilities are likely to be set up before the end of this fiscal, a senior official said.

The three PSKs, developed by the ministry of external affairs with the help of Tata Consultancy Services, are part of proposed 77 such facilities to be set up across the country. The pilot project was inaugurated in Bangalore by external affairs minister SM Krishna on Friday.

"The effort is to deliver passport services in a timely, transparent, more accessible and reliable manner and in a comfortable environment through a streamlined process," the official said.

Once these PSKs are operationalised, long queues witnessed at present at collection centres will be a thing of the past as it is designed in a way that one will be out of the facility within 45 minutes after entering it.

Also, the centres will collect applications for seven hours as against the present four hours.

"A data operator files your details in the computer and your photograph is taken. Then the documents are checked and your biometrics are taken in the second stage. It is forwarded to the granting officer who will decide on whether your  application can be accepted or not. This will not take more than 45 minutes," the official said.

After the application is accepted, it will be forwarded to concerned district police headquarters for verification.

"The current police verification process is undergoing change. Now police cannot just say the applicant is not there. They have to say where he is," the official said. The MEA has also increased amount given to police for verification from Rs100 to Rs150 per application.

He said such kiosks will be of great help to applicants. "The number of passports issued went up by 133 times from 1958 to 2006. From 2006 to 2010, the applications have doubled," the official said adding, the future expected growth is around 18% per annum with passport demand reaching over one crore by 2011.