Maduri, Coimbatore passport offices by early '07

Chennai, Sep 27 (UNI) The Union External Affairs Ministry has decided to open new passport offices at Madurai and Coimbatore during the first quarter of the next year.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs R Ahamed, in his reply to Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran's request in this regard, stated that with these two new passport offices Tamil Nadu would have a total of four passport offices.

In his letter to Mr Ahamed, in July this year, Mr Maran pointed out that the existing passport offices at Chennai and Tiruchirapalli had been handling more than 2.5 lakh applications each, which was unmanageable. Moreover, the applicants had to travel from far-off districts to Chennai and Tiruchirapalli.

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