Passport verification goes hi-tech Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Passport verification and issuance will go hitech soon as the government is equipping the special branch police personnel, who verify the antecedents of the applicants, have been given I Pads with 3G connectivity.

This will help circumvent the manual process and quicket the system.
Every year, the police receive about one lakh passport applications. As a result, even the tatkal applications are getting delayed because of the manual verification process. The local field officers will verify the antecedents and then submit the report to the passport verification process. This was taking long time and now with the I Pads, the process is likely to speed up.
Over 200 I Pads have been provided to the officers.. According to the police, average time taken for passport verification was 61 days in 2012, 35 days in 2013 and 27 in the last quarter of 2014. But people even now wait for 3 to 4 months to recieve their passports even after furnishing valid papers. The officers now hope that with the digitisation, things could be speeded up.