People can now get passports within 11 days: Govt

Describing passport as a tool of empowerment, the government informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday (July 10) that people are now issued passports within 11 days under normal circumstances.

It usually takes two to three weeks to get a passport issued. Responding to supplementaries during the Question Hour, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said that the time taken to issue passport has been reduced to 11 days under normal circumstances.

Passports under the tatkal category are issued within a day’s time. Earlier, passports under the tatkal category were issued within two or three days.

Muraleedharan also said that an application has been launched in 731 districts for police verification of applicants. He said that this will cut down on delays and corruption, which was long associated with police verification.

Responding to a question by Manish Tewari (Cong) on why people find it difficult to get passports, the minister said that, besides 36 passport offices in the country, there are 93 passport seva kendras and 412 post office passport seva kendras. He also said that no private entity is involved in running the post office passport seva kendras.