BENGALURU: Applying for passports will be a little easier as the four additional centres in the state approved by the Ministry of External Affairs is set to be operational by the end of March 2017.
The new centres called the Post Office Passport Seva Kendras will be attached to the post offices and will be opened at Davanagere, Belagavi, Hassan and Kalaburagi. A fully functional centre exists in Mysuru.
Addressing a press conference, Regional Passport Officer P S Karthigeyan said the services were expected to start by the end of February 2017, but issues related to procurement of equipment has delayed the opening and it will now be opening before the end of March.
“Right now, we are identifying suitable places to start the centres. The centres will initially be in a camp mode, which means that the final granting mode will not be done at the centre. Once things settle down, all the processes will be done at the centres and citizens do not have to travel far to access passport related services,” he said.
After the completion of training for post office staff, TCS, and post office staff will be handling all the procedures.
“Only if there are problems with the applications, which is less than 10 per cent, it will have to be sent to us. Otherwise they will be handling all aspects of accepting applications,” Karthigeyan said.