Over 60 slots of passport tatkal quota unused daily

Over 60 slots of passport tatkal quota unused daily

PUNE: As the period of police verification for passport applicants has come down from 15 days to seven days in the Regional Passport Office (RPO) of Pune, the demand of ‘Tatkal’ is also down and around 60-80 slots remain unused on an average day. Every day, the RPO opens 200 tatkal application slots.

According to Anant Takwale, RPO, this is happening as new centres are opening in the form of Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSK) across the region. 

“Applicants can get an appointment for the next day in the normal quota. In such a situation, they don’t need to get the Tatkal quota,” said Anant Takwale, Regional Passport Officer, Pune.

The Tatkal quota had huge demand as appointment availability cycle for normal quota was long and applicants had to wait for a month or even 45 days for getting an appointment at the Passport Seva Kendra. With an increase in daily application slots from 1,000 per day in 2013 (for normal quota) to 2,440 per day now, the appointment availability cycle has shrunk to an average of one to four days.

At present, Pune RPO releases 1,250 normal quota applications per day. Along with this, about 160 are released by Passport Seva Laghu Kendra (PSLK) in Solapur and 800 applications released collectively through 11 POPSKs across the region. 

“POPSKs have helped us a great deal. The jurisdiction of Pune region has almost doubled with six districts of Marathwada getting attached in November last year. Considering that we are now serving a huge area, the waiting should have gone up but due to POPSKs, we have managed to fulfill the demands of residents of interior districts by opening passport processing units in their own vicinity through POPSKs. This has also proved convenient for them as they do not have to travel all the way to Pune,” said Takwale.

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