(a) whether the Government have started the machine-printed passport facility at the Regional Passport Office, Delhi.
(b) the minimum time likely to be taken in making passport now in Delhi after the introduction of the above method; and
(c) the time by which the above facility is likely to be introduced in the remaining Regional Passport Offices?
THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS (SHRI AJIT KUMAR PANJA)
(a) Yes, sir.
(b) The procedure for issue of a passport remains the same except that instead of the manual writing of the passport booklet, it will be machine written. The police verification report is a prerequisite for the issue of a passport and this normally takes at least 4 weeks. Hence, the overall time for issue of a passport would remain unchanged at 35 days.
(c) The machine writing of passports has been started at Regional Passport Office, Delhi as a pilot project and after the technology is successfully tested the machine writing of passports would be introduced at other computerized Passport Offices in a phased manner