BENGALURU: With piling applications for passports and its renewal, officials of the Bengaluru passport office are preparing documents to appeal to the Ministry of External Affairs for a third passport seva kendra for the city. At present, the city has two passport kendras in Lalbagh and Marathahalli, although it is entitled to have three. To make up for a third one, passport officials depend on postal PSKs especially Jalahalli post office.
“Bengaluru needs another kendra to cater to the people of North and North West Bengaluru, which is rapidly growing and most number of applicants are from the region. We are planning to upgrade Jalahalli postal PSK, a third dedicated PSK would be better,” sources in the passport office told TNIE.Daily, on an average, Lalbagh PSK receives 1,600 applications, Marathahalli PSK gets 800 and Jalahalli postal PSK 40.
Karnataka has five PSKs- Marathahalli, Lalbagh, Kalaburagi, Hubballi and Mangaluru. Kavya L, a resident of Bellandur said: “Getting an appointment at Jalahalli PSK was difficult. I got an appointment at Lalbagh office for 11 am. To reach on time, I had to leave home at 8 am.” Jitendra B, a software company employee in Sarjapura, said travelling to city central is a herculean task.