Tatkal scheme for passports

The Central Passport Organisation (CPO) New Delhi, plans to come out soon with a new Tatkal (instant) scheme under which new passports would be issued to certain categories of applicants within 24 hours at a cost of about Rs 1,500.

This was announced by foreign secretary K Raghunath after formally launching a website (http://passport.nic.in) aimed at providing information on the status of passport applications, visa and Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) cards.

Government servants, employees of public sector undertakings and holders of Press Information Bureau accreditation cards who have already been verified by the police are among those to benefit from this scheme. However, the mandatory police verification would take place subsequently in such cases.

As part of the steps to streamline and improve operations of the CPO, three franchise offices would be opened shortly in Delhi and one each in Gurgaon and Faridabad. Those wanting new passports would have to submit their forms to these offices for a nominal charge of Rs 50. Their applications would be sent to the Regional Passport Office (RPO) which would despatch the passports directly to the applicants.

The website would also carry information on passport and visa rules and regulations, PIO card and fees for various services and make available status and deficiencies in applications submitted at the Delhi passport office.

Mr Raghunath said such services would be extended to the remaining 27 centres in the country where passport offices were located.

Efforts were also under way for introducing machine-printed passports using photo-scanners. He said passport forms would be made available at a number of outlets throughout the country at a nominal rate.

These measures were expected to considerably reduce the congestion at the RPO, decentralise operations for submission of applications and help eliminate the menace of touts. Chief passport officer S R Tayal said currently in Delhi there were 20,000 applications for new passports under different stages of processing. If all the requirements were fulfilled, a new passport could be easily issued within five weeks of submission of the application, he added.

The new website would enable applicants to download all categories of passport forms that would be acceptable by passport offices, Foreign nationals would be able to download Indian visa application forms and NRIs the PIO forms.

Details such as the number of photographs or documents to be submitted while applying for a fresh/renewal/duplicate passport, information on emigration clearance procedures, changing names of addresses in passports and much more would now be available on the web, he said.

PTI