Mysuru got India's first Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK).
This will offer all passport related services on the lines of PSKs.
The service will soon be expanded to neighbouring districts too.
It has been named as POPSK because the ministry of external affairs (MEA) has tied up with the postal department.
The facility will offer passport related services through a network of post offices.
It is the pilot project of MEA with Mysuru being the first to launch the service.
Authorities have plans to expand the network to facilitate residents in the rest of India.
A similar service was launched at Dahod in Gujarat the same day that is, 25th Jan 2017.
Mysuru is the fifth place in Karnataka to get a passport office.
This follows Bengaluru (two centres), Mangaluru, Hubballi and Kalaburgi.
Regional passport officers will train the postal department employees on processing an application.
Except printing and dispatch of passports, the POPSK will carry out all other operations.
This includes receiving an application, document verification and fee collection from applicants and facilitating further process by sending it to the regional passport office in Bengaluru.
This will cater to the needs of the people in Mysuru and Chamarajanagar districts having a population of 40 lakhs together.
It is a pilot project and the government has plans to open similar centres in all revenue districts across India using post office network.
This will facilitate in setting up a centre within a short period instead of creating a separate facility for handling passport related services.
As many as 6.5 lakh passports are issued in Karnataka every year, of which 45,000 are alone from Mysuru and Chamarajanagar region.
More than 750 revenue districts in the country, with more than 650 head post offices.
Based on the outcome of the pilot project, government plans to scale up this collaboration.
Passport Services in India- India ranks third in offering
- China tops the list followed by the US.
- India stands third with every year processing nearly 2 crore passport applications and issuing on an average 60,000 passports daily.
- India has 89 PSKs as extended arms of 38 passport offices providing services.
- Collaboration with India Post is a historic move.
