Vijayawada: Minister of state for external affairs and environment, forests and climate change Kirti Vardhan Singh said that the government is introducing RFID chip-embedded PSP-2 version ‘e-Passport’, to facilitate seamless travel between the countries and immigration process, with the help of new technological advancements. He inaugurated the renovated Passport Seva Kendra and launched a mobile passport van here on Tuesday.

Addressing the gathering, Kirti Vardhan Singh said the government has taken up renovating all the RPOs with state-of-the-art technology to issue passports in stipulated time to all applicants. The facilities are being developed in coordination with Tata Consulting Services, across the country in a record time.

He said that the regional passport offices are becoming the symbol of country’s economic growth, opening the countless opportunities to the talented and skilled for personal and economic growth.

Answering a media query later, the Union minister assured that the country has strong economic foundations, and nothing is going to impact our countrymen regardless of policies of others. Issue of tariff rates is going to settle down soon, he said and appealed for patience and confidence in country’s own development agenda.

Kirti Vardhan Singh thanked Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for the allotment of sufficient land in the state capital Amaravati for the passport office construction. MP Kesineni Sivanath, city MLAs Y Sujana Choudary, Gadde Rama Mohana Rao, and Bonda Umamaheswara Rao inaugurated facilities like conference hall, library, dispatch section and printing section and RPO Office in the new Kendra.

Dr K J Srinivas, chief passport officer and joint secretary, informed that Vijayawada PSK would handle 1,000 applications per day and 3.5 lakh in a year. RPO Vijayawada K Siva Harsha also spoke on the occasion.