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Passport Seva Kendra is a great Initiative
Written By nisgupta - 22 September, 2010
Bangalore governance Review seva Kendra passport renewal passport reissue
All, I recently visited passport seva kenra in the outer ring road and I cannot describe how pleased I am wit the overall experience. I think both TCS and MEA officials are doing a great job in this project, details below:
17/08/2010:
Decided to have my passport reissued, the reasons were:
All, I recently visited passport seva kenra in the outer ring road and I cannot describe how pleased I am wit the overall experience. I think both TCS and MEA officials are doing a great job in this project, details below:
17/08/2010:
Decided to have my passport reissued, the reasons were:
- Existing Passport had my Old address which was in different city and state, and it is always advisable to keep your adress up to date.
- Existing Passport did not have my spouse name.
- It was slightly damaged(Not beyond recogonition)
I filled up the form online passportindia.gov.in, everything was self explainatory. After filling and submting the form you can book an appointment, I got the appointment for 7/9/2010.
One can optionally load the supoporting documents, by I decided to skip this part as I did not have scanner at home.
7/9/2010:
Went to PSK in ORR, Bangalore with the required set of documents here , My scheduled apointmet was @ 2:30. Went there at 2:15, Plz go there only 15 mins before your schedule appointment time otherwise you wont be allowed inside. as soon as I entered I was assigned a token number. (The whole PSK office was notihng like a government office, It was Air conditioned with comfortable seating facilities, clean toilets, xerox machine an tea/coffe facility)
Once you are assigne a token the flow will be as follows counter-A --> counter-B --> Counter-C --> Exit.
After wating for only 5 mins I was escorted towards counter A, This part is handled by TCS and they are very corial and helpful. They will check/scan/upload all your documents and also collect the requsite fees. Mine was a damaged passport case so I had to pay 1000(reissue chanrges) + 1500(fine) = 2500/-. (Plz note mine was a normal case and not tatkal)
After all formalities were over at counter A, I was back to wating room and wait began for Counter B, for this I had to wait another 30 mins. counter B is for VO(verification Officer) and I think this is manned by government officials. I spent only 5 mins here and he checked the documents again.
After counter B I had to wait another 4 mins for my turn for counter C which is for GOs(Granting officers) and this is for sure manned by government officers. GOs has the final say if you passport is granted or should be refused. after all the checks/verification done at counter A and B chances that GO will reject your application is next to Nill.
Another important decesion that is taken by GO is wether your case qualify for Pre, Post or No police verfication. Mine was a reissue case with change in address so i qualified as a post verfication. the main diffrence between these modes are:
Pre verfication: Clear report from the police is required for your case to move forward
Post verfication: Police verfication is required, but clear report from the police is not required an processing of your application can start immidiately and you can even have yourpassport before the verfication(although i am not sure what will happen if one recieves his/her passport and police report is not clear)
No verfication: self explainatory :)
After counter C you can immidiately head towards exit where you would be given a acknowledgement letter with case status (Granted/Peding/refused etc) and verficaiton mode(Pre/Post/No). Mine was granted and post verfication.
Immidiately went to my office and checked the status the status was 'you will recieve and SMS/Email nce the passport is dispatched'.
14/09/2010
recived the call frommy local police station to come for verfication, this got me confused as mine was a post-verficaiton case and I had not yet recieved my passport yet, but later relaized that post-verfication just ment that issue of Passport is not wating on any police verifcation which can happen anytime.
20/9/2010
Recieved the SMS and Email that passport has been dispatched thru spped post with tracking number
21/9/2010
got the passport in just around 10 working days.
I would have to say a Big thumbs up for TCS(No I dont work for TCS :) ) and Government for such a great initiative.
Hope this helps others, Plz leave a comment if you have any questions, I will try to answer them based on my experience.
COMMENTS
Saurabhsingh - 28 December, 2011 - 14:45
Hi All,
This is the latest update which I have. Not sure if everyone is aware about these facts.
1. Any Bank Statement is Valid for Address Proof.
2. Telephone Bill for Airtel/Vodaphone etc are accepted to be on safer side get stamp on the same.
3. Pvt Ltd Company Giving Address proof was valid and accepted in my case.
4. Try to take E-stamp in case of Affadavits chances of rejection would be very less.
I got in the PSK- Lalbaug @ 1.30 came out at 7.00 pm :). Trust me it was fun as I got to know more things which I was not aware which I have written above. The Token counter took 2.5 hrs to revert whether my application was accepted or not.
But EOD I am happy that my job got over the very same day.
natarajan - 5 March, 2012 - 12:45
I agree with @nisgupta based on my visit to ORR seva kendra this morning. My appointment was at 9.45AM. I reached early at 9.15 and waited in the queue for 9.45AM batch.
Just few minutes after 9.45 we were led in after the security check and verification of the appointment print out.
As I was opting for Tatkal the person manning the token counter had to check with the Government Officer which took 10 to 15 minutes for giving the token.
After getting the token I entered around 10.10AM. Within 5 minutes of waiting, I was asked to go to Counter A. Counter A took the maximum time as lot of work such as scanning, finger printing, photogrphing was to be done and i saw the speed and efficiency of the TCS person who was doing that.
After finishing counter A roughly 15 to 20 minutes, I was asked to wait but within 2 minutes, my number was called for next counter.
Counter B was manned by GoI person who also was very efficient though he did not have to do as much work as the counter A.
Within few minutes this was done. And he asked me to go to final counter/Granting officer.
I did not even have to wait as the GO took me immediately. She also took few minutes and I was asked to proceed to Exit.
I was out by 10.45AM. It probably took roughly one hour for the whole thing and it was such a pleasant and amazing experience.
I felt that after IRTC, this is something really impacting us very positively and kudos to whoever is behind this initiative in Passport office/GoI and also TCS for doing a wonderful job of execution.
I am sure there would be minor glitches and probably some dissatisfied customers, but the big picture definitely looking good and hope to see such initiatives in other areas as well.
Natarajan
nisgupta - 5 March, 2012 - 16:43
@Natrajan, thanks for sharing your experience, I agree with that there are teething trouble with any new intiative but this is definitely a step in a positive direction.
I would encourage more people to share there experience here, It will help definitely help others as getting a passport is often percieved as a stressful exprience, but based on many positive experiences posted here there is no reason to feel that way......
outsourcing - clearly the way forward
murali772 - 23 September, 2010 - 05:48
I hope this will put paid to the rants against outsourcing by the status-quoists - check this
nisgupta - 29 December, 2011 - 03:53
@Saurabhsingh, thaks for the update, I am sure this will help others.
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