BENGALURU: The Regional Passport Office issued 79,027 passports across the state in March this year, its highest ever for a single month. It has also delivered over 7.27 lakh passports in the calendar year of 2022. K Krishna, Regional Passport Officer (RPO), Bengaluru, told TNIE that the issuance of passports was increasing every month enabling them to hit the record number last month. “The demand was slightly high in March. We also cleared our pendency cases which helped us touch this record figure,” he said.
The passport office issued nearly 70,000 passports in December last year and over 71,000 in January. The number dipped in February because it was a 28-day month, but hit an all-time high of 79,027 in March. The previous high was before the pandemic in June 2019 when around 74,000 passports were issued, he said.
The overall number of documents issued is much higher - 8,03,714. “This includes passports, police clearance certificates (PCC) and surrender certificates (given to those who give up Indian citizenship). Of this, 4,63,766 were issued to men, 3,39,946 to women and two to transgenders,” the RPO said.
An average of 3,700 applications are being received in a day across Karnataka with the maximum demand coming from Bengaluru, the officer said. This includes the five Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) in Hubballi, Kalaburagi and Mangaluru as well as two in Bengaluru (Lal Bagh and Marthahalli) along with 23 Postal PSKs.
The average time taken in the state to obtain a passport from the date of appointment (when processing starts) till it is delivered has reduced to nine days, he said. “This number varies across districts. In the case of Hubballi or Mangaluru, the demand is far less and one can get a passport within a day or two, he said.
Of the 39,000 PCCs issued in 2022, the maximum was issued to those heading to Kuwait, followed by Saudi Arabia.