To be honest not much has changed sine then and now – even today it takes minimum of 3-4 weeks from the time you apply.
However, very soon the time to get your passport may come down from 3 weeks to 3 days – that is – if there is successful implementation of the landmark Passport Sewa Kendra E- Governance initiative as mentioned by current Externals Affairs minister S.M. Krishna.
This Passport Sewa Kendra (PSK) initiative was actually announced couple of years back, however, as in most cases, this too has seen its share of delays. But now it seems that it will soon be a reality, as 2 PSK’s are now operational in Bangalore and Seventy-seven such hi-tech state-of-the-art IT-enabled Passport Sewa offices are likely to come up across the country in next few months.
Under this scheme, a passport can be got in 3 days following police verification. Tatkal applicants could get the passport the same day. Currently, it takes around 30 to 45 days for non-Tatkal passports and a minimum of seven days for getting a Tatkal-routed passport.
This also is a great example of public-private partnership – This scheme is implemented by Government of India in partnership with TCS. The sovereign functions will be taken care by External Affairs ministry while TCS has been outsourced all the front-end activities.
What I am really happy about is – PSK’s will go hi-tech, with all proposed centers to be connected by a centralized IT system, along with biometric verification, availability of online services for fixing appointments, three national call centers, a grievance redressel system and status of application via SMS.
What needs to be seen is – How well do they actually function :)
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Arun Prabhudesai
Quelle/Source: Trak, 08.03.2010
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