Once the Passport Service Kendra (PSK) at Muralinagar in the city, expected to open in July, starts functioning, the travails of applicants will be a thing of the past. Passport seekers from the five districts – Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East and West Godavari districts – that fall under the jurisdiction of the Regional Passport Office here have to submit their applications at the PSK.
Passport applications will no longer be accepted at the Passport Cells at the Superintendent of Police (SP) Offices in the district and the Police Commissioner's Office in the city.
The PSK will be manned by 45 staff of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) who would take care of the front office work.
Quick processing
Once that's done the process of filing of application would be completed in 45 minutes flat. Of course, the applicant would have to pay a nominal user fee for the facility but he/she can take the service provider to task, if there is any delay in processing.
“As soon as an applicant enters the PSK, he/she would be issued a computerised token that indicates the time within which the transaction has to be completed like the practice followed at some banks. The application would be accepted, scanned and the biometric features of the applicant captured, and a receipt issued within the scheduled time,” according to Passport Officer VSDL Surendra. “The manual filing of applications would be dispensed with and applicants have to submit their applications online. Once the preliminary verification was done by the TCS staff and the details are fed into the computer, a file number would be generated immediately.” The Passport Officer, stationed at the back office (Regional Passport Office) cannot keep the application pending without reason and has to note the cause for delay, if there was any.
Tatkal applicants would also have to submit their applications online after introduction of the new system. Meanwhile, the opening of the new Regional Passport Office at Marripalem VUDA Layout may take some more time. Applicants need not have to go to the RPO as their applications would be accepted at the PSK.
