Pune: Soon, you may complete passport process at doorstep

25 January 2017

PUNE: This is first of its kind project in the country where the passport issuance authorities will go to the doorsteps of passport seekers instead of them reaching to Passport Seva Kendras

Enthused by the success of a pilot project of processing passport application in a mobile van, Regional Passport Office, Pune, is now planning to start a permanent mobile passport processing facility which will go to interiors of the region which has low passport issuance.

Atul Gotsurve, Regional Passport Officer, Pune, said that within a period of two to three months, the RPO Pune will get its own van, equipped with all the facilities to process passport applications. It needs high-speed internet connectivity which can be obtained from telephone exchange offices which are common at every taluka headquarters.

“We can use the reliable high-speed internet at the telephone exchange offices and without any glitch we would be able to process as many as 150 applications per day from the Mobile Passport Van,” Gotsurve said.

This is first of its kind project in the country where the passport issuance authorities will go to the doorsteps of passport seekers instead of them reaching to Passport Seva Kendras, which are located in big cities like Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur.

“Last week, during a two-day passport camp in Baramati, we conducted a trial of mobile van processing of the passport application by using infrastructure of Vidyapratisthan’s Institute of Information Technology (VIIT). Two applications were processed without any glitch and the applicants will soon get their passports once they clear police verification,” said Gotsurve.

The RPO said that even before acquiring its own mobile van, it would continue to use the VIIT van to conduct the camps in some parts of Pune district.

“Using the VIIT van and internet from the telephone exchange we can go ahead and organise such camps at taluka level. We will soon conduct such camp at one of the centres where the moble van processing will be rolled out in a full-fledged manner,” Gotsurve said.