If all your documents are in order, you should get your fresh passport in five weeks. If you already hold a passport, then your passport should be re-issued in one week. In case of damaged or lost passports (except in case of habitual losers), provided you apply to the same office that issued your original passport, you should get your passport in about five weeks. If you have applied for a duplicate passport to an office other than the one that issued the passport you have lost or damaged, you should get your passport in six weeks.
Remember – It is the applicant’s right to obtain a passport within the prescribed timeframe and without harassment.
Source: MEA Procedure Guidelines
In March 2001, Mr Swain, an IAS officer of 1988 batch of Gujarat cadre, was appointed as the Regional Passport Officer, Ahmedabad. He was clearly unhappy about the status of passport application processing and the passport issue time which was estimated to be 145 days (Table 1). He noticed that there was a long queue of applicants waiting to either submit a passport application form or eager to know the status of their application. As on March 2001, the number of pending applications had crossed 100,000. He was keen to explore means and methods by which the response time could be reduced and wanted to redesign and realign the passport issue process with an objective of improving consumer focus.
REGIONAL PASSPORT OFFICE: A PROFILE
The passport is an official document which establishes the identity of a citizen.
It is the birth right of every citizen to apply for and obtain a passport.
Usually, it is used as an identification document for travel outside the country.
The Central Passport Organization (CPO), a division of the Ministry of
External Affairs (MEA), is the authority for issuance of Indian passports to eligible Indian citizens. This document is issued from 28 Regional Passport
Offices (RPOs) across the country and 80 Indian missions abroad. In the year ending March 2000, a total of 2,055,693 passports were issued through 28
RPOs in India.
The RPOs have two distinct functions, viz., issuing new passports and providing other related miscellaneous services. Miscellaneous services are broadly classified into eight categories including renewal of passports, re-





  

     

  


 
   
  




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Ahmedabad Regional
Passport Office: Rapid Response
Time by Process Redesign

   
 







  

 

 
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