Get your passport in three days now!

Tata Consultancy Services, (TCS) has signed a deal with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India, for the Passport Seva Project (PSP). According to the deal the process of issuing a new passport will be now completed within 3 working days while passports issued under the Tatkal scheme will be dispatched on the same day, subject to address and police verification of applicants.

The project cost is valued over Rs. 1,000 crore and will be implemented within a Buy-Own-Operate-Transfer or BOOT framework with pilot projects operation within 19 months. The countrywide roll-out of the Passport Seva Project will take place within six years and the Government will open 77 Passport Filing Centers across the country in a phased manner. TCS will have end-to-end responsibility of implementing this project.

“The Passport Seva Project, based on a public-private partnership model, aims to provide passport-related services to Indian citizens in a speedy, convenient and transparent manner. The sovereign and fiduciary function of granting and issuing passport remains with MEA and TCS will be our technology and operations partner in this project” said Shivshankar Menon, Foreign Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs.

Well, if implemented successfully the Passport Seva Project will enable citizens to enjoy the benefits of a technology-led, service oriented approach ensuring that the proper security, safety and safeguards. Herein applicants will have the option of filling the Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR)-enabled form which along with all relevant documents will be scanned and submitted at Passport Facilitation Centres (PFCs). The PFC will be the primary hubs that will support all activities like biometric capture, photograph, payment and verification and grant of passports in the presence of applicants for most cases. The Passports will be dispatched in three days in case no police verification or post-issue police verification is required based on passport issuance regulations. Complete tracking of process would also be possible in the system. Police nodal offices will be facilitated by TCS personnel and the PP Forms will be downloaded there directly eliminating the logistic delay. A call centre would be established to help the applicants with information regarding passport procedures and the status of submitted requests. Grievances would be tracked and closed.

Welcome to the digitised world of passports! How soon you will see it is a question yet to be answered.