The Regional Passport Office – Coimbatore has created a record by issuing as many as 1.03 lakh passports in one year.
According to S. Sasikumar, Passport Officer, the office was established on September 15, 2008 and in that year, 9,790 passports were issued, in 2009 68,005 passports were issued and in 2010 it became 71,772 passports. In 2011, it touched 96,166 and in 2012 79,640 passports were issued.
These were in addition to various miscellaneous services offered.
The number of applications received during 2008 were as many as 22,798, it shot up to 76,733 in 2009, and 79,032 in 2010. In 2011, it touched 89,046 and in 2012, it was 82,156.
In 2013, till December 26, the total numbers of applications received were 1,00,157 and through two adalats held for clearing the pending applications, the office achieved the record of issuing 1.03 lakh passports and in the next few days (before December 31), the office was gearing up for clearing more pending applications.
Mr. Sasikumar added that the office was ranked as number one among the C category passport offices and was also awarded a certificate of appreciation by the Minister for External Affairs and one of the staff members was awarded certificate of merit. Through various streamline process, complaints regarding non-availability of online appointments for submission of applications have been brought down to zero.
