Amritsar: Passport office in Amritsar

Passport office in Amritsar, Passport office in panjab amritsar

Amritsar:The Sikh holy city of Amritsar will have its own new passport office functional by this month-end with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) setting up a new facility here.

This will be the third passport office in Punjab after the existing ones in state capital Chandigarh and Jalandhar city.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to inaugurate the new passport office here June 28 in the presence of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

The new passport office is located in this city's upscale business and residential Ranjit Avenue area.
Thousands of Punjabis, especially those from the Doaba belt comprising the districts of Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Nawan Shahr and Kapurthala - all located between the Sutlej and Beas rivers, have migrated abroad, especially to the US, Britain, Canada and European countries in the last nearly seven decades.

The new passport office is being opened here to take part of the work load off from the regional passport office in Jalandhar. Over 100,000 passports will be issued annually from here, MEA officials said.
The demand for passports has also gone up in this area of Punjab after relaxation in rules for people wanting to visit shrines in Pakistan and going for other work in the neighbouring country. Lahore city in Pakistan is just 50 km from here

The Minister of External Affairs said that his Ministry has already initiated the Passport Seva Project for introducing better and latest IT solutions, further simplification of procedures and reducing paper work to the barest minimum, with a view to maximizing the comfort levels of passport applicants and achieving the best international standards. The project, which is expected to be implemented in a time frame of 19 months, will result in the issue of passports within three days and in cases which require police verification, within three days after the completion of the verification process.

Tatkal passports will be issued on the day of submission of the application. The Passport Seva Project envisages opening of 68 Passport Facilitation Centres all over the country, where the non-sovereign functions, involved in the passport issuance process, will be performed by a service provider to be selected through an open bidding process. Police verification will be expedited through electronic linkage of the Passport Facilitation Centres with the police authorities in State Capitals. This centre would also start issuing e-passports, also known as biometric passports, in the diplomatic category, said he. Issue of e-passports in the official passport category will also commence soon. The Ministry of External Affairs has drawn up a programme for the full roll out of e-passports in the ordinary passport category by September, 2009.