Another record 6.95 lakh passports issued in 2014

Regional Passport Office (RPO) Hyderabad has topped the list of 37 passport offices in the country by issuing 6.95 lakh passports in 2014. “7.17 lakh passport applications were accepted during the period and 6.95 lakh passports were issued,” said Regional Passport Officer Ashwini Sattaru on Thursday.

"In 2013, 6.56 passport applications were received and 6.32 passports were issued. This amounts to 13 per cent growth as compared to 2013," she said and attributed speedy clearance of police verification process for achieving the highest number of issuance of passports.

RPO Hyderabad presently covers 18 districts, including entire 10 districts of Telangana and 8 districts of Andhra Pradesh. “In view of division of Andhra Pradesh, eight districts of AP, which are currently under the jurisdiction of RPO, Hyderabad, will be transferred to Visakhapatnam Passport Office,” Ashwini said, adding that this includes transfer of Passport Seva Kendra in Vijayawada and Tirupati as well.

All the applicants from Anantapur, Chittoor, Kadapa, Kurnool, Nellore, Guntur and Prakasam districts besides Vijayawada will now have to approach the Visakhapatnam Passport Office for queries and passport related issues and services. “In Mahabubnagar and Medak districts, police verification process is completed in eight days, while in AP, it is the fastest with verification being completed in six days in Krishna district followed by Kadapa in seven days,” Ashwini said.

“From November 24 this year, all handwritten and non-machine readable passports will become invalid. All passport holders, who have been issued handwritten passports with 20-year validity and those who have non-MRP are required to renew their passports for a machine readable one,” she added.

By:Ch Saibaba