To overcome sudden surge of demand for passports in Karnataka in the last few months, Regional Passport Office, Bangalore, is looking at bringing down the 'appointment availability time' to one-day by June, a top RPO official said today.

The demand for passports has increased by 88 per cent in the last 11 months, Regional Passport Officer K J Srinivasa told reporters here.

RPO Bangalore in conjunction with TCS is aiming at bringing down the appointment availability time to 15 days and then further down to one day by June as part of its apppointment handling drive launched last month,he said.

The number of passport applicants per day in Bangalore has been increasing from 1,226 in 2009 to 1,700 in 2010.

As of today, RPO is giving 2,479 appointments per day (including Tatkal) across four Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs)-- Bangalore (2), Mangalore and Hubli (one each), he said.

An action plan has been drawn up which includes opening 30 per cent additional appointment slots daily in the four PSKs, a revised schedule of appointments based on an incremental appointment structure, release of tatkal appointments only one day in advance and release of slots freed due to cancellation/rescheduling only one day in advance,he said.

The office is currently catering to the specific time bound demand of Haj applicants with a special drive wherein 150 appointments are reserved for them at PSK Lalbagh.

"We are in the process of deploying more officers to PSKs to further increase our intake.External Affairs Ministry has assured all support including deployment of additional staff from other passport offices located in southern India to clear the rush", Srinivasa said.

Due to these steps, close to 30 per cent applicants (about 750) can now get an appointment the next day at any PSK.

The passport office, in conjunction with TCS, has now decided to further provide additional appointments to public by increase of 150 appointments each in Hubli and Mangalore PSKs to cater to ever increasing demand for northern, central and coastal Karnataka and a further increase of around 250-300 appointments per day in Bangalore alone.

It has been decided to accept passport applications in physical from at RPO, Koramangala with effect from May 2, 2011 to May 31 initially, to bring down the rush.This drive would not only provide an outlet for applicants who have not got appointments but also will be helpful in reducing waiting period for future applicants,he said.

Srinivasa said applicants who come to RPO will be attended on a first come, first serve basis.

With the proposed action plan, by mid-May, all appointments would be available the next day in Mangalore (application cycle brought down to one day), while Bangalore would get a two weeks appointment cycle and further to a one day waiting period by early June.

He said with the start of Passport Seva Project (PSP) system, the old NIC software system has been closed. Over 32,000 pending cases in the NIC system have been solved till date.

However, delays in issue of normal passport have largely been due to pendency of police verification reports at the police end,he said.As on date, about 50,000 police verification reports are pending with various Superintendents/Commissioners of police across Karnataka for a period of over 21 days.

In the new PSP system, passports are granted subject to police verification reports on the day of submission of application itself, while passports get printed only on receipt of police verification report which are directly loaded by concerned police authorities under their digital signatures.

Srinivasa said receipt of passport applications through Speed Post Passport Application Collection Centres (SPCCs) and Bangalore One Centres has been stopped as applications submitted through these channels were not only lacking proper documents but also did not involve gathering of bio-metric information,a vital component of PSP system.

However, keeping in view, the necessity of applicants from rural areas who may find it difficult to submit applications at PSKs, a provision has been made for them to send their applications via DPCs located at District headquarters and PACC, Gulbarga, which will be upgraded to a mini-PSK soon. Yadgir district is now linked online for sending of police verifications, he said.

Bi-monthly adalats to resolve applicant grievances are being held and grievances can be addressed to [email protected] or applicants can come in person to RPO head office in Koramangala to resolve their grievances.