Now get new passport in three days: Regional Passport Office

Aimed at faster delivery of passports to aspiring individuals, the Regional Passport Office in Chennai would be able to give away new passports in three days after submission of relevant documents, a top official said on Wednesday.

As per the new procedure directed by the Ministry of External Affairs, first-time applicants would be able to get new passports in three days, by provision of Aadhar card, Election Photo identity card, Permanent Account Number along with other necessary documents, Regional Passport Officer K Balamurugan said.

The new procedure will enable faster issue of passport, without "any additional fee" subject to online validation of Aadhaar number besides details of PAN card and EPIC, he told PTI.

Those individuals for setting up appointment at the preferred Passport Seva Kendra centres would be able to fix it in five available days according to their convenience compared to existing practice of fixing an appointment at the next available date, he said.

On the current method of police verification, he said, Ministry of External Affairs has developed an 'mPassport Police App' for speedy submission of the police verification report in which police verification may be done after issuance of passports to the individual.

The new procedure would be implemented in Tamil Nadu shortly, he said, adding, India ranked third highest in terms of issuance of passports at 1.20 crore while Tamil Nadu ranked fourth issuing 10.08 lakh passports after Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Kerala in 2015.