BENGALURU: With the pandemic hitting operations, the Regional Passport Office (RPO), Bengaluru issued only 3.5 lakh passports in 2020, perhaps the lowest in a decade. A huge majority of these passports were issued before the nationwide lockdown was imposed in March.
Sources in the RPO say that while 3.4 lakh applications were received last year, 3.5 lakh passports were issued. These include pending applications from the previous year (2019) that were processed last year.
The state has 23 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSK) and four Passport Seva Kendras handled by private players and one that is self-managed. Among POPSKs, 12 are integrated with RPO, Bengaluru, which enables relatively quick issuance of passports.
While work in Passport Seva Kendras and POPSKs came to a halt during the lockdown — only emergency cases were addressed — operations resumed only at partial strength when restrictions were eased, before eventually bouncing back. Incidentally, POPSKs in the state are yet to resume operations.
In 2019, RPO, Bengaluru, issued a total 7,95,980 passports at an average of about 3,200 a day. Of the 3,54,215 passports issued last year in the capital city, 76,578 were issued in January, 59,718 in February and 49,906 in March.
Bharath Kumar Kuthati, regional passport officer (Bengaluru), said that they were now receiving as many passport applications as in pre-Covid times. He indicated that he and his staff have their hands full as the office is also coordinating with the state health and family welfare department in tracing foreign travellers who came to India just before the lockdown was enforced. The RPO is helping by providing passport details.
Sources in the RPO say that while the number of people applying for passports when the pandemic was at its peak had fallen steeply due to fear of venturing out into public space, Kuthati said that in 2021, they are expecting a deluge of applications as the ones who did not apply last year would come back this year.