 |
|
||
 |
|||
| Improve Your World | Home | About Us | Sitemap | Search | Contact Us | ||
|
|
||||||||
| Home >> Citizen Services >> Newspaper Articles |   Email this Page |
|
|||
|
Your passport on fast track
It will take just a 45-minute visit to the passport office and a 15-day wait...Nilova Roy Chaudhury New Delhi
GETTING YOUR passport made, renewed or updated will be a breeze. In fact, within 45 minutes of stepping into the passport office, you will know when you can get your passport - on the same day, in three days or in a fortnight. A ‘FiFo' (first in, first out) system will ensure you don't need to pull strings to speed up your application and services like change of address will be provided on the application day itself. These are not the fantasies of a harassed passport seeker; the Ministry of External Affairs is planning a massive overhaul of the system, slated for completion by 2009.
By the end of this month, the Ministry of External Affairs will home in on one of the six shortlisted companies - Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, 3i Infotech, SpanCo, Elec tronics Corporation of India Ltd and Bharat Electronics Ltd. The firm has to provide 28 services (including efficiency, quick response time) and will be held accountable.
Mumbai receives the maximum number of passport applications in India; around 1,400 people apply daily . It can take between 15 days and three months to get a new passport now.
All applicants will need to go once to the passport ‘front offices' - to be set up across the city depending on volume of traffic - where their photos will be taken and scanned. Documents will also get scanned after which applicants will be informed when they will get their passport.
"Services involving issuance of new passports will be rendered in three days. In cases that need pre-police verification, the service will be three days plus verification time," as per a Ministry document.
FIRST IN, FIRST OUT ¦
1. You will know on the day you apply whether you will get your passport on the same day, in three days or within a fortnight.
2. All applicants will have to visit the passport office once; agents will not be entertained.
3.. There may be front desks across the city where applicants can go by 2009.
 |
