Passport office fetches Rs 45.83 crore revenue
Tirupati, Apr 7(UNI) The Hyderabad Regional Passport Office (HRPO), covering 18 districts in Andhra Pradesh has earned a record revenue of about Rs 45.83 crore for the year 2006-07, issuing 5,03,003 passports in the state against Rs 39.14 crore last year, HRP Officer B Balabhaskar said here today.
Addresing in a press conference here he said the regional passport office, was the only one in the country to have achieved ISO-9001:2000 certification from the Bureau of Indian Standards for quality management work.
The Tirupati collection centre received a record 31,802 applications and earned a revenue of Rs 3.19 crore in 2006 compared to the other five collection centres in the state, including Vijayawada.
He said several bottlenecks in the procedures to issue a passport had been removed and simplified to ensure that new passports were issued in a stipulated timeframe of 18 to 23 days, four to five for 'Tatkal' service, three days for miscellanceous services and five to ten days for renewal.
The HRPO has also started accepting applications at 100 speed post offices all over the state. A record number of 6,20,000 passports have been issued in the month of June 2006 alone, Mr Bhaskar said.
The office would also conduct passport adalats on Wednesdays, during which, applicants, who had not receieved their passports for a period beyond 60 days, can meet the Regional Passport Officer directly without any appointment and get their grievances redressed, he said.
UNI