CHANDIGARH: The passport issuance system in Chandigarh has undergone a remarkable transformation. For the first time, in last eight months, the Regional Passport Office (RPO) in Chandigarh has issued passports to over 120 sportspersons within just 48 hours. These athletes required their passports urgently to participate in international and domestic events.
Additionally, with 4,865 daily appointments for passport issuance, the RPO has implemented measures to streamline and expedite the process, ensuring that passports applied for via the Tatkaal procedure are issued within two days, and those applied through the normal process are issued within a week. This is a significant reduction from the previous issuance time, which used to take several weeks. Consequently, the number of grievances has decreased by two-thirds.
The Chandigarh RPO, which serves Chandigarh, 12 districts of Punjab, and 12 districts of Haryana, issued a total of 8,42,375 passports in the previous financial year. This is an increase of 80,000 from 2022-23, making this RPO one of the top three performers in the country.
In an ambitious initiative to streamline the process of applying for and issuing new passports and renewing existing ones, the Regional Passport Office in Chandigarh has taken significant steps to enhance its grievance redressal mechanisms. Currently, the average waiting time for a regular appointment is 30 days, while for a Tatkaal appointment, it is within the same week. This is a substantial improvement from February last year when the waiting time was 90 days for regular appointments and 30 days under Tatkaal.
In the past six months, more than 120 sportspersons have been issued passports within 48 hours by the RPO. These requests were either made personally by the sportspersons or by their respective associations, and the passports were issued promptly to enable participation in international events and domestic trial and selection camps. Previously, passports for sportspersons were issued as per normal procedure, which took a long time.
There is also a signnificant drop is the number of grievances from the public regarding passport issues.