5,38,343 passports issued in Telangana in 2015

The Ministry has announced two major changes recently that will expedite the process for first time passport applicants as well as make it more convenient to secure an appointment at local Passport Seva Kendras. As per the announcement, the first time passport applicants who furnish Aadhaar Card, Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC), PAN Card and an affidavit in the format of Annexure-I will get faster service without payment of any additional fees, subject to successful online validation of Aadhaar and EPIC and PAN Cards, if required from the respective databases. The passports under this liberal dispensation will be issued on Post-Police Verification basis.

The second measure announced pertains to securing online Appointments for submission of passport applications at Passport Seva Kendras. The new provision is allowing applicants to choose any appointment date from the earliest five available dates (working days) for scheduling/rescheduling an appointment for Passport related services. Earlier, the System used to offer only one available date to the applicants for seeking appointment for Passport related services.

No extra charge is levied for the services being rendered due to above two announcements.

There was a temporary shortage of passport booklets which created some backlog in issuance of passports in December 2013 – February 2014 and April 2014-mid June 2014 due to stoppage of production of booklets by ISP Nashik due to shortage of raw material imported from abroad. However, there is no backlog in the issuance of passports due to supply of passport booklets at the present.

In view of increased demand for passports, the Ministry is considering to further increase the number of PSKs and endeavoring to open more PSKs in thickly populated district headquarters. With the implementation of Passport Seva Project (PSP), the Ministry had established 77 Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) in various States/Union Territories initially. Subsequently, to provide more access points for passport services, the Ministry decided to set up 19 additional Passport Seva Laghu Kendras (PSLKs). Out of these 19 PSLKs, 10 have already started functioning in various States and Union Territories till February 2016. The Ministry has also initiated the process to engage an agency to conduct a comprehensive study for Passport Seva Project Version 2.0 (PSP V2.0) including exploring the possibility of opening more PSKs across the country. It may be stated that the recommendations for the PSP V2.0 will be considered after expiry of the current PSP Contract in June 2018

The number of passports issued during the last three years, State-wise is given below:

State	2013	2014	2015
Andaman & Nicobar	3008	3560	4200
Andhra Pradesh	7,75,182	6,00,592	4,52,415
Arunachal Pradesh	767	922	1,676
Assam	39,977	50,028	66,702
Bihar	1,69,454	2,56,492	3,65,631
Chandigarh	22,914	26,729	29,425
Chhattisgarh	30,459	34,539	38,867
Dadra and Nagar Haveli	1,227	1,254	1,777
Daman and Diu	5,091	6,333	8,400
Delhi	3,14,955	3,42,310	3,84,119
Goa	48,373	47,185	51,586
Gujarat	4,61,409	5,48,591	7,46,856
Haryana	1,79,382	2,13,009	2,53,480
Himachal Pradesh	28,298	32,699	47,006
Jammu and Kashmir	86,660	86,095	1,13,184
Jharkhand	60,453	66,730	84,381
Karnataka	4,37,129	5,24,733	6,36,770
Kerala	9,47,532	10,60,148	11,44,138
Lakshadweep	1,503	1,488	1,706
Madhya Pradesh	1,02,745	1,43,309	1,64,625
Maharashtra	8,04,411	9,21,635	11,87,050
Manipur	4,248	4,915	5,451
Meghalaya	2,507	3,184	5,152
Mizoram	1,958	2,451	2,880
Nagaland	2,366	2,695	2,937
Odisha	81,412	94,477	1,08,131
Puducherry	20,113	20,699	21,658
Punjab	4,56,718	5,80,838	7,14,989
Rajasthan	2,02,340	2,50,747	3,11,050
Sikkim	1,662	4,468	5,354
Tamil Nadu	8,16,190	9,35,894	10,08,132
Telangana	41	2,81,451	5,38,343
Tripura	7,083	14,737	22,251
Uttar Pradesh	6,08,670	8,46,594	13,36,917
Uttarakhand	47,996	72,202	85,385
West Bengal	3,28,485	3,88,837	5,85,752
PAN India	71,02,718	84,72,570	1,05,38376

Excluding Passport issued overseas and Diplomatic/Official passports issued directly by the Ministry.