Daijiworld Media Network—New Delhi (MM/CN)

New Delhi, Oct 13: All passport seekers know very well how difficult it is to get a new passport. It takes months to get a new passport. But there is a plan to issue passports within two days of the application being received.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has entered into an agreement with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), to simplify the process of getting passports. The MEA will start 77 passport service centres all over India, in association with TCS.

The centres in Bangalore and Chandigarh, will be operational by March 2009. All existing 73 passport offices will be upgraded by January 2010. The demand for passports has been increasing every year.

A total of 20 lac passport applications were submitted in 2000 and this figure reached 50 lac in 2007. Therefore, the MEA has decided to simplify the passport procedure by outsourcing services to TCS. The contract amounts to Rs 1,000 crore.

The MEA will continue to manage all the procedures related to passport delivery in co-ordination with TCS, sources said. The passport applications will be registered online and even the police enquiry will be completed online, sources added.