The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Passports touch a record high

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Passports touch a record high

Staff Reporter

June figures put passport office in Hyderabad in prime slot followed by Chandigarh

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh Regional Passport Office (RPO) here set a record by issuing 61,243 passports in June. The next highest number of passports was issued by Chandigarh with 31,617 and New Delhi 25,841.

Regional Passport Officer B. Bala Bhaskar told a press conference here on Tuesday that on an average the office issued about 30,000 passports every month.

Since January this year the office had issued over two lakh passports, he said.

He said among the initiatives to be taken soon was a round-the-clock, multi-lingual interactive voice response system (IVRS) regarding passport procedures. The RPO was constantly striving to improve its services.

Processing time

The processing time for passports had come down from 45 days to 35 days. Passport adalats introduced in January would continue, he added.

Those with grievances could get them redressed on Wednesdays from 2 p.m.

Mr. Bhaskar said the RPO was working on options to streamline the process of receiving passport applications from the Old City through either a separate counter or by using the Speedpost network.

Either way, a decision would be taken soon and given wide publicity in the various media.

Special Haj counter

The Regional Passport Officer stated that while a separate counter was functioning to handle queries from Haj pilgrims, a proposal to have an exclusive counter at Haj House was being considered.

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