All the 77 Passport Seva Kendras (PSK) planned to be set up across the country under public-private partnership mode by the Ministry of External Affairs would be functional by January 2012, according to Anil K.Sobti, Project Director, Passport Seva Project, Ministry of External Affairs.
“Seven PSKs were opened on a pilot basis. We are in the process of rolling out the remaining 70 PSKs across the country. We will do it in the next seven to eight months; two or three PSKs would be opened every month,” Mr.Sobti told reporters on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the Tiruchi and Thanjavur PSKs here on Wednesday. The PSKs are being opened in partnership with the Tata Consultancy Services, which would provide the front-end operations at the kendras such as collection of applications, recording of bio-metric details and photograph of the applicants.
The project aims at providing passport services to the public in a comfortable, efficient and secure ambience.
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Mr.Sobti said six PSKs, including three in Chennai, one each in New Delhi, Vishakapatnam and Coimbatore would be opened in July. The Madurai and Tirunelveli PSKs are slated for opening on Thursday. Once the PSKs in Chennai and Coimbatore are opened, Tamil Nadu would be fully covered. The Ministry has also planned to open 15 mini PSKs and five of them would be located in the North-Eastern States.