Regional Passport Office to function from Vijayawada from January 2024
The Hindu
Regional Passport Office to function from Vijayawada from January 2024. It will help reduce the waiting time for obtaining a passport and cater to the needs of applicants from 15 districts, says Regional Passport Officer Shiva Harsha.
The Regional Passport Office (RPO)-Vijayawada, which has been functioning from Visakhapatnam so far, will be shifted to Governorpet in Vijayawada in January 2024, say officials. As of now, Vijayawada has a Passport Seva Kendra (PSK).
Once the office is shifted, applicants can expect a reduction in the waiting time in obtaining their passports, as printing too will be done in the city, Vijayawada Regional Passport Officer K. Shiva Harsha told the media here on Saturday.
Earlier, one had to go all the way to Visakhapatnam to get any issue resolved, he said. “The shifting of the RPO will be a relief for the people of Rayalaseema, as Vijayawada is nearer to them than Visakhapatnam,” Mr. Shiva Harsha said.
This would be the second Passport Office in the State after the one in Visakhapatnam, which would offer printing, despatch, administration and policy-related services to the applicants.
The Vijayawada RPO would cater to the needs of the applicants from 15 districts. The PSKs in Vijayawada and Tirupati, and the 13 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKs) come under its jurisdiction, a release from the office said.
The RPO-Vijayawada currently processes approximately 2,000 applications per day. It has provided services to more than three lakh applicants (for passports and police clearance) so far.
While residents are worried over deaths due to diarrhoea in Vijayawada, officials still grapple to find the root cause. Contaminated drinking water supplied by VMC officials is the reason, insist people in the affected areas, but officials insist that efforts are on to identify the disease and that those with symptoms other than diarrhoea too are visiting the health camps.