6.18 lakh passports issued in 2015: Regional Passport Office Bangalore

BENGALURU: For the second consecutive year, Regional Passport Office Bangalore has been recognised as the Best Regional Passport office of the country by the Ministry of External Affairs, out of 37 passport offices in the country.

According to P. S. Karthigeyan, Regional Passport Officer, in the year 2015 RPO Bangalore has issued 6.18 lakh passports, the highest ever, and recorded a revenue of '101 crore. In 2014, the office had issued 5.24 lakh passports.

“Due to a number of steps taken by the office in the year 2015, the appointment cycle for the passport services in Karnataka under normal category has come down to an all time low of 2-4 working days across all four Passport Seva Kendras. Tatkaal appointments are freely available in very next working day. Due to the initiative of the passport office in cooperation with the state police authorities, the average time for police verification for the passport services has also come down from 26 days. Efforts are on to further bring it down to 10 days in the present year,” he stated.