Hyderabad, November 22: Regional Passport Officer Dr M Srikar Reddy has said that six Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) would be opened on November 25 at various places in the State.
Speaking to mediapersons in his office here, Dr Srikar Reddy said that the Centre has decided to open 77 PSKs in the country and out of them, six PSKs would be set up in the State.
The objective of PSK Project was to deliver passport-related services to the citizens in a timely, transparent, more accessible, reliable manner and a in a comfortable environment through streamlined process and committed, trained and motivated workforce.
Out of six PSKs allotted for the State, three will be set up in Hyderabad and one each in Tirupati, Vijayawada and Adilabad. In addition to these, a mini- Passport Seva Kendra would be opened at Karimnagar. The PSKs would be established under Public Private Partnership (PPP) and the TCS was the consulting agency, he added.
“From the date of opening of PSKs, acceptance of passport applications at e-seva centers and post offices would be stopped and the services of 100 passport authorized agents will be cancelled.
The PSKs will operate in full swing within two months”, he said. Explaining about the process of passport issuance in the new system, he said that henceforth the candidates are required to apply for passport online and a slot would be allocated to them to appear at PSKs.
The applicants should appear at the PSKs, where sections of A, B, C would be available to complete the process. At one counter, the TCS personnel would verify the online application details, at the B counter, the officers of Passport Office would record finger prints of the candidates and at C –counter, the officials would finalize the process.
The entire process would take only 45 minutes at PSKs. For the job, the TCS would charge Rs 200 on each application from December, if the application was accepted.
After getting details of police inquiry, the passport of the candidate would be sent for printing and the passport would be in the hands of applicants within six days, he added.
The PSKs would remain open for seven hours in a day and applications would be received from the candidates. It was estimated that 2,200 passport applications would be received per day at six PSKs, he added.
Replying to a question, Srikar Reddy said that there were chances for setting up of mini-Passport Seva Kendram in Visakhapatnam. The government was planning to open one PSK in each district throughout the country, he added.
——————–(NSS)————————————