Passport demand in India to reach one crore by next year: Krishna

With the demand for passport expected to reach one crore next year, the government is planning to take up a project to link passport seva portal to district police headquarters.

Officials of the ministry of external affairs said the Central Passport Organisation under the ministry issued 55 lakh passports in 2009, and the annual growth is expected to be 18% to reach one crore by 2011.

"The growing profile of India in the recent past has  created a situation where we are anticipating a larger number of applicants for passports," external affairs minister SM Krishna told reporters here today.

"We are linking passport seva portal to district police headquarters so that reports are received expeditiously," he said. Seventy-seven PSKs are proposed to be opened across the country in the next eight to ten months, Krishna said after opening a passport seva kendra (PSK) here.

He said in this regard a data centre and a network operation centre had been opened in Delhi and a disaster recovery centre in Chennai.

Krishna said a pilot scheme to link passport seva portal to district police headquarters would be launched soon. Trial runs have been "very successful" as per initial estimation.

Acknowledging that getting police clearance for passport is a "time-consuming" affair and an "onerous" responsibility, he, however, asserted that there would be no compromise on such security checks which are an "absolute must".