Raipur gets passport office

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the passport office here on December 16 in response to a long pending demand of local people for a separate passport office.

Chhattisgarh was bifurcated from Madhya Pradesh on November 1, 2000, and till now, the state was administratively attached to the regional passport office in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.

This meant issue of passport took five to six months and applicants had to travel to Bhopal.

"Passport was a necessity," Mukherjee said, adding that increasing international trade meant more people flying abroad.

In the last 11 months, more than 15,000 passports were issued in Chhattisgarh from the Bhopal office while last year, the number was 13,000.

Mukherjee said the ministry "would provide all required facilities". Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed, Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh, former chief minister Ajit Jogi, AICC treasurer Motilal Vora, Member of Parliament Karuna Shukla and former Union minister Vidya Charan Shukla were present on the occasion.

The Centre had approved the recommendations of the Hyderabad-based National Institute of Smart Government (NISG) entrusted with the task of undertaking a time-bound study on the passport issuance system, including its IT aspects, so as to deliver passport related services to citizens on time, according to external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee.

The ministry recently launched 'Passport Seva Project' to streamline passport office operations in the country.

It would soon enable the department to issue passports within three days in normal conditions and tatkal passports in a single day.

Mukherjee said work was on to launch the pilot project for e-passports incorporating bio-metric details of the holder in an integrated circuit (IC) chip embedded in the passport back cover.

The government expected to launch the project in six months to make Indian passports more secure against forgery and help check issue of multiple passports using false identity and other details to the same person.

The ministry of external affairs will recommend the civil aviation department to build an international airport in Raipur in view of the potential of Chhattisgarh, according to Pranab Mukherjee.