Visakhapatnam: Passport officials have issued 1.05 crore passports in the country in 2015 (24.3 per cent more than in 2014). However, the impact of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh was evident on both AP and Telangana.
From 7.75 lakh passports in 2013, the number in AP came down to 4.52 lakh in 2015. The number of passports issued in Telangana on the other hand went up from 2.81 lakh in 2014 to 5.38 lakh in 2015.
The introduction of the Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) in 2010 has reduced the time taken to get a passport issued in the country and the number of passports issued ever year has been increasing.
The number of passports issued in a calendar year crossed the one crore mark for the first time in the year 2015, where 1.05 crore passports were issued. In 2013, 71.02 lakh passports were issued while in 2014 year the number was 84.72 lakh passports.As per data, from six passports issued for every 1,000 population in 2013, it went up to nine passports for every 1,000 persons.
Even after division of state Nellore, Prakasam, Ananatapur, YSR Kadapa, Chittoor and Kurnool districts in AP would not be transferred to the Passport Office in Vizag due to some political issues. But those districts are still under the jurisdiction of the RPO, Hyderabad so that passports offices in Telangana have issued more passports than AP.
So far only Guntur and Krishna districts were transferred to Vizag RPO. If remaining districts are transferred to RPO, Vizag, the growth rate would be more than Telangana, Passport Officer, Vizag, NLP Choudhary added.
Though the total number of passports issued in AP declined due to the division of state in mid-2014, the regional passport office, Vizag has witnessed increase in number of passports issued in 2015. Vizag passport office had issued 2.21 lakh passports in 2015 as against 1.94 lakh in 2014.
Mr Choudhary said that the regional office covering from Srikakulam to Guntur besides the district of Yanam ( UT Puducherry) received 2,26,109 applications as against 2,01,809 in 201 4 and approved 2,24,144 applications as against 1,98,038 in 2014.
The total revenue generated in 2015 was Rs 36.51 crore while it was Rs 30.42 crore in 2014. The year-on-year growth rate in the number of applications received in 2015 stood at 12.4 per cent and there has been a 20 per cent increase in the revenue generated through Passport Services.
There was a cut down on the pendency of applications at various stages. In 2014, 30,000 applications were pending due to the adverse police verification reports but it has come down to just 100 applications in 2015, the passport officer said.
