Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh told Parliament on 15 February that passport and consular capacity in western Uttar Pradesh has been ‘substantially up-scaled’. The state now hosts three Regional Passport Offices (Lucknow, Ghaziabad, Bareilly), six full-service Passport Seva Kendras and 52 Post-Office PSKs, including two new centres in the Ghaziabad and Bareilly zones.
The rollout is part of Passport Seva Programme 2.0, the ₹1,600-crore digital overhaul operated by Tata Consultancy Services. All 37 RPOs nationwide now issue chip-embedded e-passports, and the ministry processes an average of 50,000 applications daily. Queue-management algorithms introduced last quarter have reduced counter times from 45 to 30 minutes, officials claim.
![Government widens Passport Seva network in western Uttar Pradesh under PSP 2.0]()
For corporate mobility teams the upgrade means faster turnaround for assignees’ dependants, many of whom reside in tier-2 towns. HR managers in Noida’s IT corridor say the additional Ghaziabad PSK slices at least a week off onboarding timelines because staff no longer have to travel to Delhi for police verification.
The ministry hinted at a future fee revision to offset higher production costs of e-passports but pledged to keep current rates unchanged until at least 2027. Applicants are advised to use only the official portal after a spate of fraudulent look-alike websites surfaced during last year’s maintenance shutdown.
The rollout is part of Passport Seva Programme 2.0, the ₹1,600-crore digital overhaul operated by Tata Consultancy Services. All 37 RPOs nationwide now issue chip-embedded e-passports, and the ministry processes an average of 50,000 applications daily. Queue-management algorithms introduced last quarter have reduced counter times from 45 to 30 minutes, officials claim.
For corporate mobility teams the upgrade means faster turnaround for assignees’ dependants, many of whom reside in tier-2 towns. HR managers in Noida’s IT corridor say the additional Ghaziabad PSK slices at least a week off onboarding timelines because staff no longer have to travel to Delhi for police verification.
The ministry hinted at a future fee revision to offset higher production costs of e-passports but pledged to keep current rates unchanged until at least 2027. Applicants are advised to use only the official portal after a spate of fraudulent look-alike websites surfaced during last year’s maintenance shutdown.
Source: The Times of India
