More Passport Seva Kendras at post offices

BENGALURU: With 15 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKs) already launched across the state and two more set to be launched at post offices in Nanjangud and Chitradurga this week, the kendras are now playing a crucial role in ensuring people in far-flung parts of the state too can obtain passports easily.
All passport-related activities can be carried out at these kendras, thereby saving applicants a visit to the Regional Passport Office or its kendras.

The Mysuru post office along with Dahod post office in Gujarat were the first two centres opened in the country where the POPSK was launched on a pilot basis on January 25, 2017. This followed an agreement entered into between the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Postal Department. The MEA is keen on opening such a Kendra in every Lok Sabha constituency.

Charles Lobo, Post Master General, Karnataka Circle, said that a total of 1, 36,726 passport applications have been processed through the POPSKs. Of these, the passport office has issued nearly 1.2 lakh passports while the rest are being processed.

“A section in each of these offices has been earmarked for issue of passports with two staffers provided by the postal department. As in the case of the regular passport office, one needs to take an appointment online to visit the POPSKs,” Lobo said. 

Regional Passport Officer (RPO), Bengaluru, Bharath Kumar Kuthati said, “The Passport department, with its main office at Koramangala, has its centres at Lalbagh and Marthahalli in Bengaluru and one each in Mangaluru and Hubballi. The POPSKs help public from different parts of the state enormously as they need not travel only to our passport kendras like they had to do in the past.” Asked if it had taken the workload off the passport offices, the RPO said that this was countered by an increase in demand for passports from public.  

In January this year, POPSKs were inaugurated in Robersonpet post office in Kolar, Koppal Bazaar PO in Gadag and Ankola PO in Karwar. Mysuru, Chitradurga, Shimoga, Hassan, Tumakuru, Udipi, Belgaum, Ballari, Bidar, Bijapur, Gadag and Raichur are areas where POPSKs have already been inaugurated. 
“The Metagalli post office in Mysuru is the busiest and upto 44,494 passport applications have been processed here since inception upto December 2018,” he said.