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28 Mar 2024, Edition - 3180, Thursday

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The success story of Passport Seva Kendra

S. Sasikumar, Passport Officer

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In the earlier days, passport offices were always crowded with eager and nervous people. Long queues, bunches of documents and anxious people adorned the offices on all working days. Every body was uncertain – applicants were uncertain whether their application would be received and Passport Officers were uncertain of the number of applications they had to verify in a single day.

The introduction of Passport Seva Kendras (PSK) has erased the uncertainty. Long gone are the days when people came to passport offices with a dilemma. Now these centres provide us with the best of ways to serve people efficiently and in time.

The numbers stand witnesses to the impact these centres have created so far. Before we launched the PSK in Coimbatore, we received between 350 and 400 applications each day and the dispatch of passports was more or less equal. But the PSK has boosted the performance by 15 per cent and now we process close to 800 applications and an equal number of passports is dispatched. We issued 1.31 lakh passports in 2015 alone and the numbers are only set to rise with time.

The centre under the Coimbatore Regional Passport Office is pioneering not only because of the numbers we are able to achieve, but also because of the workforce we have who helped in transforming the task of applying for a passport from a tiring job to an easy walkthrough.

The 29 in-staff including the officers and floor managers make sure that the applicant completes the process within 25 minutes and make it a happy experience overall. The process also makes it simple as the applicants choose the date and time when they are available and they have different slots to choose from.

The centre also has a built-in library and a canteen to help the candidates refresh themselves. All those who come can expect their queries addressed in time and experience a feel-at-home hospitality. Passport Seva Kendra has not only helped simplify the process, but has also built confidence among the general public who once felt hesitant and took the help of middlemen.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author’s own

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