| Tuesday, May 28, 2013: Passport Seva Project (PSP), the mission mode program of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), has successfully completed three years of operations in Bangalore. With the establishment of Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) in the city, the MEA has taken assertive steps to deliver passport services to citizens of Bangalore and adjoining areas in a timely, transparent, more accessible and reliable manner. |
Bangalore was the first city in which the pilot phase of PSP was
first launched in 2010. During this period several operational
improvements were made and significant innovative steps were taken to
enhance the passport services and to roll out the PSP across India.
Since then the Bangalore RPO has been providing exemplary passport
services to the fellow citizens through four PSKs (two in Bangalore and
one each in Hubli and Mangalore) working under its jurisdiction.
Mr. L. Madan Kumar Reddy, Acting Regional Passport Officer, Bangalore, said, “Through the implementation of Passport Seva Project in Bangalore, in the last three years we have successfully processed 11.75 lakh passport applications and issued 10.9 lakh Passports/PCC to the citizens. To make the whole experience citizen friendly, we have also organized several Passport Mela(s) to enhance the accessibility of passports for people and ease the rush of applicants.”
In the last three years number of passport applications processed by Bangalore RPO has increased by over 43%, while from April 2012 to April 2013 the increase is 20% i.e. from 30,500 to 36,500 on a monthly basis. With the pendency of Police Verification (PV) reports at an all-time low (41,500), there has been a tremendous increase in the percentage of PV’s completed within 21 days i.e. from 31% (in 2010) to 43% (in quarter ending March 2013).
Following improvements have been done to provide better passport services to the citizens:
• Capacity Enhancement – The application handling capacity at the two PSKs (Lal Bagh in Bangalore and Mangalore) was doubled so as to accommodate more applicants and address high demand for passports
• Productivity Improvement – Bangalore RPO is handling more than 2000 passport applications on a daily basis, which is five times more than it used to handle three years back
• Improved Infrastructure & facilities to Citizens – Additional facilities were added to the existing infrastructure to make the entire experience inside a PSK comfortable and hassle-free for applicants
o Seating arrangements for people who accompany the applicants or early comers outside the PSK
o Drinking water and public conveniences outside the PSK premises
o Adequate paid parking facility for citizens visiting PSK
o Baby care facility within waiting area
o Provisioning of facilities like photocopy, high class snacks counters and ATMs within PSK premises
• Faster Service Delivery to Citizens – Appointments to visit PSKs can be taken through the online process in a systematic and fool-proof manner. Pre-defined walk-ins slots for senior citizens, minor applicants, govt. servants etc. are also being given by the RPO
• Haj Pilgrimage Aspirants – Haj aspirants are given priority through a defined and easy process so that their applications are processed in a minimum possible time-frame
• Passport Mela – The Bangalore RPO organize several Passport Melas to meet the demand supply gap of passports and reduce the pendency
• Pilot centre for ‘Direct to Thana’ initiative – With an objective to reduce the time taken to conduct police verification, which involved paper file movement, a unique initiative has been taken in Bangalore on a pilot scale. Under this 102 police stations of the Bangalore city are connected online to each other and PV requests are directly sent to the respective police stations from the PSKs itself. Thus, dependency on paper file movements has been reduced to minimum increasing the turn-around time
• Migration of PVR activities to PSK – In the initial period, private staff were deployed at RPO for handling PVR related activities which has been recently migrated to PSK to save on time especially during high volume season and for better control
• Training Centre – A Part of the Mangalore PSK was converted into a full-fledged state-of-the-art training centre for PSK operations
As part of MEA’s e-Governance initiatives, the Passport Seva Project (PSP) has transformed the passport issuance system across India through an increased network of 77 PSKs. The Ministry is improving governance in Passport Offices by focusing on citizen-centricity, service orientation and transparency.
Other benefits of the Passport Seva Project include:
• Longer working hours to benefit the citizens, PSK appointments available between 9.30am to 4.15pm
• 24*7 Call Center Support in 17 languages
• Complete digitization and processing of application when applicant visits the PSK, reducing the overall time spent and eliminating multiple visits
• Biometric data and photographs taken in highly secure environment
• Granting decision taken in front of the applicant, therefore greater transparency
• Citizens leave the PSK with certainty on the status of their application
• Transparency in the process and online real-time availability of data for ease of monitoring and decision making
Mr. L. Madan Kumar Reddy, Acting Regional Passport Officer, Bangalore, said, “Through the implementation of Passport Seva Project in Bangalore, in the last three years we have successfully processed 11.75 lakh passport applications and issued 10.9 lakh Passports/PCC to the citizens. To make the whole experience citizen friendly, we have also organized several Passport Mela(s) to enhance the accessibility of passports for people and ease the rush of applicants.”
In the last three years number of passport applications processed by Bangalore RPO has increased by over 43%, while from April 2012 to April 2013 the increase is 20% i.e. from 30,500 to 36,500 on a monthly basis. With the pendency of Police Verification (PV) reports at an all-time low (41,500), there has been a tremendous increase in the percentage of PV’s completed within 21 days i.e. from 31% (in 2010) to 43% (in quarter ending March 2013).
Following improvements have been done to provide better passport services to the citizens:
• Capacity Enhancement – The application handling capacity at the two PSKs (Lal Bagh in Bangalore and Mangalore) was doubled so as to accommodate more applicants and address high demand for passports
• Productivity Improvement – Bangalore RPO is handling more than 2000 passport applications on a daily basis, which is five times more than it used to handle three years back
• Improved Infrastructure & facilities to Citizens – Additional facilities were added to the existing infrastructure to make the entire experience inside a PSK comfortable and hassle-free for applicants
o Seating arrangements for people who accompany the applicants or early comers outside the PSK
o Drinking water and public conveniences outside the PSK premises
o Adequate paid parking facility for citizens visiting PSK
o Baby care facility within waiting area
o Provisioning of facilities like photocopy, high class snacks counters and ATMs within PSK premises
• Faster Service Delivery to Citizens – Appointments to visit PSKs can be taken through the online process in a systematic and fool-proof manner. Pre-defined walk-ins slots for senior citizens, minor applicants, govt. servants etc. are also being given by the RPO
• Haj Pilgrimage Aspirants – Haj aspirants are given priority through a defined and easy process so that their applications are processed in a minimum possible time-frame
• Passport Mela – The Bangalore RPO organize several Passport Melas to meet the demand supply gap of passports and reduce the pendency
• Pilot centre for ‘Direct to Thana’ initiative – With an objective to reduce the time taken to conduct police verification, which involved paper file movement, a unique initiative has been taken in Bangalore on a pilot scale. Under this 102 police stations of the Bangalore city are connected online to each other and PV requests are directly sent to the respective police stations from the PSKs itself. Thus, dependency on paper file movements has been reduced to minimum increasing the turn-around time
• Migration of PVR activities to PSK – In the initial period, private staff were deployed at RPO for handling PVR related activities which has been recently migrated to PSK to save on time especially during high volume season and for better control
• Training Centre – A Part of the Mangalore PSK was converted into a full-fledged state-of-the-art training centre for PSK operations
As part of MEA’s e-Governance initiatives, the Passport Seva Project (PSP) has transformed the passport issuance system across India through an increased network of 77 PSKs. The Ministry is improving governance in Passport Offices by focusing on citizen-centricity, service orientation and transparency.
Other benefits of the Passport Seva Project include:
• Longer working hours to benefit the citizens, PSK appointments available between 9.30am to 4.15pm
• 24*7 Call Center Support in 17 languages
• Complete digitization and processing of application when applicant visits the PSK, reducing the overall time spent and eliminating multiple visits
• Biometric data and photographs taken in highly secure environment
• Granting decision taken in front of the applicant, therefore greater transparency
• Citizens leave the PSK with certainty on the status of their application
• Transparency in the process and online real-time availability of data for ease of monitoring and decision making
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