Special action to clear Pending passport's

A double shift system has been introduced at the Tiruchi Regional Passport Office as part of a special drive to clear pending passport applications.The average time taken for issue of fresh passports will be reduced to 30 days, from the date of application, by October. Currently, fresh passports are issued in about 68 days and this would come down to 50 days by the end of this month, the Passport Officer S. Balachandran told The Hindu on Wednesday.

The office has started issuing tokens from 7.30 in the mornings so that applicants need not have to wait in long queues to enter the office for submission of applications and payment of fees. “All public transactions will be completed by 1.30 p.m. so that the rest of the afternoon is exclusively used for back-office operations,” Mr. Balachandran said. Additional staff has been deployed at the counters for the purpose. Eight data entry operators will be recruited shortly to expedite the issue of passports.Online system

In an attempt to encourage applicants to use the online system of filing applications, the Passport Office has persuaded a couple of ex-servicemen, who are authorised to fill-up the application forms on behalf of the applicants in front of the office, to purchase laptop computers through which they would assist the candidates to file their applications. Applicants can file the applications online with the help of the ex-servicemen and appear at the office the same day for verification of certificates along with the print outs of the registration numbers. The system, to be introduced soon, would reduce the queue and the workload of the Passport Office employees as the data is directly uploaded on to the computers.

The office, which issued three lakh passports last year, has issued 1.22 lakh passports so far this year. Passports have been issued with respect to all eligible applications received by the office till May 3, 2007.