The Regional Passport Office (RPO) Hyderabad surpassed its previous year’s record issuing 7,85,485 passports this year while the number stood at 6,43,157 in 2022.
Regional Passport Officer (RPO) Hyderabad, J. Snehaja said on Friday that the number of passports issued was much more than the last four years. In 2021 as many as 4,28,246 passports were issued and 5,32,785 were issued in 2019 (before COVID).
She said the RPO Hyderabad stood at 5th place in the country in issuance of passports this year. Mumbai topped followed by Bangalore, Lucknow and Chandigarh.
The RPO Hyderabad, on average, has been processing about 4,000 applications in a day, including five Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) and 14 Post Office PSKs. She said that slots under normal quota were taking about 22 days while under Tatkal it was taking about 4 to 5 days. The applicants were being issued passports in one to three days under the Tatkal scheme and 7 to 10 days in the normal course.
Ms. Snehaja said the RPO also worked in partnership with the Telangana State Haj Committee by establishing a dedicated counter to streamline the application process for Haj pilgrims. Over 400 requests were processed through this initiative in the last 10 days.
The RPO had initiated special drives on Saturdays throughout the year in response to the growing demand for passport services.