Bangalore, May 20 (DC):  The long wait for a passport will end soon as the city police has decided to fast-track the entire verification process. The department will be linked to the recently set up Passport Seva Kendras (PSK) to make the process online enabling it to forward a passport applicant’s details to the Intelligence Bureau the same day. Announcing this here on Wednesday, city police commissioner Shankar M. Bidari said the intelligence bureau will be informed soon after an applicant submits his application at the PSK.

“The filled in application form along with the necessary documents will be sent to the IB. The bureau officials will in turn forward the same to the jurisdictional police station for physical verification,” Mr Bidari said. The completed application forms, which will be sent via Internet, will be downloaded at the jurisdictional police station by the police officer concerned.

“We have sent 54 colour printers to different police stations across the city for the purpose. The remaining stations will get the printers at the earliest,” he said. The police officer will then do a physical verification of the applicant. “He will check the address and other details mentioned by the applicant in the form,” he said. Once the officer corroborates the facts, the documents will be forwarded to the Crime and Criminal Information System (CCIS) to check if the applicant has a criminal record. “Soon after the CCIS gives a green signal, the documents will be sent back to the PSK with an NoC from the police,” Mr Bidari said.

Once the procedure falls into place, the applicant could get the passport within four to five days. “The time taken to send the documents from one department to the other will come down. It will also reduce the cost to the police department as most part of the procedure will be online,” he added.