The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Department of Posts (DoP) on Tuesday decided to open eight Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKs) in Maharashtra, an official release said.
The second batch of POPSKs will be started in Aurangabad, Beed, Jalgaon, Kolhapur, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Ghatkopar, Mumbai North Central and Mumbai South Central.
"These would be in addition to the Passport Seva Kendras already functioning at Andheri East, Lower Parel, Malad, Thane, Nasik, Pune and Nagpur in Maharashtra," said the ministry in the release.
"A Passport Seva Laghu Kendra (PSLK) at Solapur in Maharashtra is scheduled to be operationalised shortly," it added.
The MEA and the DoP had announced on January 24 to utilise the Head Post Offices in various states as POPSKs for delivering passport-related services to the citizens.
The pilot projects for this joint venture between the two were inaugurated on January 25 at Mysuru in Karnataka and at Dahod in Gujarat.
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Following the success of these pilot projects, the MEA and the DoP announced earlier this month their decision to open 56 POPSKs (in the first batch of expansion) in various states of the country.
The total number of the planned POPSKs has now reached 64.
--IANS
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