Kolkata: The Passport Seva Project in West Bengal, the programme of the Ministry of External Affairs, has shown a positive outcome in passport service in the last one year, Regional Passport Officer R. Sivakumara in a release said today.
Since being operational in November, 2011, the number of appointment slots has increased from 28,000 to 36,000 per month, a rise of 29 per cent in the Kolkata region, the release said.
Statistics indicate that the number of passports issued at Kolkata RPO have increased substantially in the last four months," said.
There had been improvement in police verification process that helped issuance of higher number of passports.
There had been 166 per cent increase in online police verification for passports in the last four months, the release said.
The online police verification model substantially reduces the time taken for police verification, thereby resulting in faster dispatch of passports
"We also took special initiatives to assist Haj applicants where 10,000 cases were processed end to end within the timeline, Sivakumar added.
The passport seva project managed by TCS said it had increased sitting arrangement and other amenities to meet increasing demand.
PTI
