Passport seva kendras to come up next year

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
20-Nov-10

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The long queues in front of the Passport offices may soon become a thing of the past as the proposed Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) would become functional in the state by the beginning of next year.

As many as 13 PSKs are being set up across the state including three under Thiruvananthapuram-region, five under Kochi region, two each under Kozhikode and Kannur and one at Malappuram.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) which is setting up the PSKs have already identified the locations. The land acquisition process is being carried out. Once it is over, the building would be set up in 100 days time, TCS sources said adding that the PSKs would become operational by around April-May 2011.

A total of 77 PSKs are being set up across the country. The project was already rolled out in Bangalore in May this year. Though there are certain initial technical hick-ups, those are expected to be sorted out soon.

The PSKs would offer a customer friendly atmosphere with modern amenities. In order to avoid queues, the applicants would be given appointments for submitting the applications. The applications will have to be filed online. There would be help desk at each PSKs to assist the applicants in filling the forms. Officials of Passport Office would be verifying the documents at the PSKs.

Another feature of PSKs would be that the applicant need not attach passport size photographs along with the application as digital the photographs would be taken at the PSKs itself. Moreover, biometric finger print of all fingers of the applicants would also be collected and stored in the data base. This would be useful to check tampering with the photographs in a passport, which is rampant these days.

The biometric data being collected could also be used once biometric passports with smart cards are introduced.

Once the PSKs are set up the Regional Passport Offices would not directly accept applications from the public. Instead it would turn to be back-end processing centres of passport applications. The applications received at the PSKs would be transferred to the Regional Passport Offices online. The police verification process would also be done online.

By making the entire process online, the processing time for a passport application could also be reduced considerably, said sources.

The existing facilities to submit passport applications at the passport cells attached to the District Superintendents of Police as well as as selected Post offices may be phased out in the due course.

Ends