PRESS RELEASE

Consulate General of India

New York

The Passport Seva Program has brought in a huge transformation towards delivery of Passport Services in India. This has seen a sea change in last 4 ½ years.

In the year 2017, there was a 19% growth in passport related services. The monthly submission of applications has crossed one million mark for the first time. More than six crores passports have been issued through the Pasport Seva system. The Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India took many significant steps to improve the service delivery experience for the citizens. Not only did the work of simplifying Passport rules has been achieved with the same vigour but passport services have also been taken closer to the doorsteps of the citizens. The Ministry with Department of Posts took the decision to start Passport Seva Kendars in Head Post Offices. As a result, 236 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKs) have been operationalised as on date and many more are in pipeline. This, when added to 36 Passport Offices and 93 erstwhile Passport Seva Kendras makes a total of 365 Passport Offices for public.

The Ministry has initiated the integration of Passport Seva Program at all Indian Embassies and Consulates across the globe. As part of this initiative, the Ministry successfully initiated the Pilot at High Commission of India, London followed by Consulate General of India, Birmingham and Edinburgh.

The Global Passport Seva Program has been launched today at Consulate General of India, New York for the Indian Diaspora. The Ministry shall be launching this Program shortly at its Embassy in Washington, D.C. followed by CGI Atlanta. The Ministry aims to operationalise all Embassy/ Consulates in the US during the course of next 15 days. The new system will help in easy and convenient application submission process, will usher-In standardization, digital overhauling, end-to-end status tracking and enhance security.

The Government of India planned to roll out the Global Passport Seva Program at all Embassies/ Consulates within next 3-4 months.

Nov 21, 2018
New York

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