New passport office set to begin work in Oct: Official

Tiruchirapalli, Aug 24 (UNI) The much-awaited Regional Passport Office (RPO) at Madurai is expected to begin functioning from October this year, Tiruchirapalli Regional Passport officer S Balachandran said.

Speaking to newsmen here yesterday, Mr Balachandran said the building was ready to house the RPO with civil works and computerisation nearing completion.

All southern districts beyond Tiruchirapalli whose jurisdiction was now with the RPO here would be brought under the Madurai RPO.

Arrangements were on to bring staff working in various passport offices and establishments of the External Affairs Ministry to the Madurai Office based on requests.

To a question, Mr Balachandran said after commencement of operations, fresh applications for passports and miscellaneous matter of existing passport holders of Madurai and other southern districts would be dealt with by the new RPO.

Responding to another querry, he said efforts were underway to construct a pucca building to house the passport office here, which was now functioning in rented premises.

He had already approached the district administration for acquiring suitable land for the construction of a new building for the RPO.

UNI