Indian government to open more passport service centres in post offices

Muscat: More passport service centres will be opened by the Indian government in post offices across the country, Sushma Swaraj, the Minister of External Affairs, said in the parliament.
“With the successful operationalisation of two pilot projects, the government has now decided to scale up this programme by opening 64 more Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK),” the minister said.
There are around 650,000 Indians residing in Oman.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Department of Posts (DOP) decided to utilise the Head Post Offices (HPO) in the various states as POPSK for delivering passport related services to the citizens of the country.
The pilot projects for this joint venture between MEA and DOP was inaugurated on January 25, 2017 at the Post Offices at Mysuru in Karnataka and at Dahod in Gujarat.
The POPSK would be functioning like the other existing Passport Seva Kendra (PSK). The process of issuing passports will not change after the opening of the POPSK.
Applicants, who apply for their passports online through the passport portal, can now schedule an appointment and then visit the designated POPSK to complete the formalities similar to those at the PSK necessary prior to the issue of the passport.
The photographs, biometrics and the supporting documents would be electronically captured at the POPSK and the applicant will not have to revisit the POPSK prior to the issue of the passport.